June 20, 2026 | WhatsApp is rolling out a minor visual upgrade that makes a great positive impact on the user experience. WhatsApp is testing a new online indicator for Android devices, which is a familiar Green Dot.

As discovered by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp will show a Green Dot on profile icons when the contact is online on the messaging app. Instagram and Telegram users are familiar with the online indicator, which is being prepared for WhatsApp.

June 19, 2026 | WhatsApp Beta in iOS brings back smoother message animations. The app’s Android Beta has recently adopted new animations, which are now expanding to Apple users after a brief pause in previous Beta builds.

Recently, WhatsApp Android Beta added smoother message sending animations. Apple users who are testing WhatsApp Beta are now getting (via WABetaInfo) this visual improvement as well.

WhatsApp Beta for iOS 26.24.10.70 carries the visual changes for Apple devices. They appeared on Android as part of WhatsApp Beta for Android 2.26.23.11 last week.

The new animations ensure a more lively chatting experience on the page. Tapping the send button will no longer immediately surface the message bubble.

Rather, the message bubble will carry a smooth animation to appear alive by fading smoothly. WhatsApp is also bringing controls, so you don’t have to end up dealing with the animations as a necessity.

The animations will also be in effect when you receive a new message. The iOS version, which replaced the previous one, is something different from Android.

Unlike the previous animation effect, the message bubble now fades in while slightly scaling up as it settles into the conversation, which feels noticeably smoother.

The option is available within WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Animations, where users can control animations for emojis, stickers, and GIFs.

The changes are currently limited to the Beta version of the application. Users will receive the new animations once developers verify the stability of these visual improvements.

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• 3 big changes coming to WhatsApp: Home screen widgets, group overhauls, and feature retirements

At VivaTech 2026 in Paris, Samsung laid out a blueprint to turn the average household into a proactive hub for preventive medicine. Through an open network of connected devices and specialized healthcare partnerships, Samsung is positioning itself to shift medical/doctor screening out of clinics and directly into the home.

According to Hon Pak, Head of the Digital Health Team at Samsung Mobile eXperience, daily wellness is entering a brand-new era.

Rather than relying on single standalone gadgets, Samsung is tapping into its enormous global footprint, which currently supports 77 million monthly active users on Samsung Health and 460 million users on SmartThings.

By integrating home appliances, TVs, and wearables, the system sets up personalized automation routines to quietly manage family well-being.

Adding the Missing Diagnostic Layer

The core of this ambitious push relies on open collaboration with specialized health innovators to bridge the historic gap between hospital settings and domestic life:

SiPhox Health: Contributes a clinical-grade diagnostic layer, allowing households to track continuous biomarker data alongside wearable metrics through at-home blood testing.

Generation Lab: Supplies targeted solutions that allow users to measure biological age and manage aging right from the living room.

Xealth: Works directly with the ecosystem to seamlessly bridge daily home data back to traditional hospital clinical care.

Samsung envisions an AI-driven “daily companion” that understands individual biological needs to smoothly automate lifestyle improvements where people spend most of their time.

Looking at the next five years of healthcare in the context of the AI era, Pak concluded, “A daily companion that knows who I am, as well as what I need and when, will help me achieve my health goals seamlessly through lifestyle behaviors and connected innovative partner services.”

WhatsApp is testing a series of UI changes and feature adjustments. Recent beta releases reveal that the messaging giant is focusing heavily on home screen accessibility, streamlined group management, and cleaning up underutilized features.

Here is a breakdown of the three major changes currently rolling out or under development.

Widget for voice messages

WhatsApp is expanding its Android home screen shortcuts to streamline daily interactions.

A new resizable 3×1 widget allows users to record voice notes with a single tap directly from their home screen, bypassing the need to open the app and locate specific chats.

Once recorded, the audio can be sent to individual contacts, multiple recipients at once, or shared as a status update.

Redesigned group chat info screen

WhatsApp is reorganizing the group chat info interface by introducing two dedicated hubs at the very top of the screen:

• Preferences: Consolidates personal choices like Chat Themes, Media Visibility, and storage management tools.
• Privacy: Houses security configurations, including Chat Lock settings and end-to-end encryption details.

You may like: WhatsApp is redesigning its About section with a live preview screen

Privacy setting for avatar stickers

WhatsApp is discontinuing its avatar feature due to low user engagement. Users can no longer create, edit, or send new custom avatar stickers from the keyboard.

The application is also removing the associated privacy settings that controlled collaborative sticker pairing. Notably, past avatar stickers remain saved in old chats or personal favorites.

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• WhatsApp rolling out smooth message bubble animations

Samsung announced the new One UI 9 Health app experience on June 4, promised it would begin rolling out on June 8, and then went quiet.

That silence broke at VivaTech 2026 in Paris, where Samsung used Europe’s largest startup and tech conference to formally plant its flag in the connected health space. The showcase also served as the green light for the rollout to finally begin.

Under the theme “Open Invitation to a Healthier Tomorrow,” Samsung demonstrated how its Galaxy devices, Samsung Health, and third-party integrations can form a continuous loop between everyday wellness tracking and clinical care.

What the new Samsung Health actually looks like

The app has been reorganized around five pillars: Sleep, Activity, Nutrition, Mindfulness, and Vitals; each accessible from a dedicated tab on the home screen.

Two additions anchor the new home screen experience: daily wellness tips and an AI-generated Energy Score. The Energy Score is designed to give users a single, digestible number that reflects how recovered and ready they are for the day ahead, pulling from sleep quality, overnight biometric readings, and activity history.

The Vitals section consolidates heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen into a single screen and compares them against your personal resting baseline.

Heart Health Score is a composite metric that factors in sleep, stress levels, activity, and body composition data to produce a single cardiovascular wellness index.

Two more features round out the fitness side: Daily Cardio Load, which tracks workout intensity and accumulated exertion over time, and a Fitness Index, which gives users a broader picture of their physical condition and progression.

Samsung was careful not to officially name “Galaxy Watch 9” in its announcement, referring instead to “the upcoming Galaxy Watch.”

The app redesign and the Energy Score are already rolling out to One UI 9-compatible Galaxy devices. But features like Heart Health Score, Daily Cardio Load, and the full Vitals suite require Samsung’s next-generation wearable

The Galaxy Watch 9 series, along with the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, is expected to be unveiled at a Galaxy Unpacked event rumoured for July 22, 2026, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8.

WhatsApp developers have begun open beta testing of a new About section, which carries a proper live preview screen. It shows exactly how your About text appears inside a chat before you save anything.

Before this update, you were basically guessing. You’d write something, save it, open a conversation, check how it looked, go back, edit it, repeat the whole cycle.

The redesign consolidates three previously separate steps into a single interface, well described by WABetaInfo. You write your About text in the field below the preview. You set an expiration time right beneath that, and a shortcut to privacy settings sits on the same screen.

The expiry options are preset: 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, with a custom setting stretching that up to one month. These durations aren’t new; they surfaced back in November 2025. The redesign just makes them accessible.

You can now toggle Privacy Settings between Everyone, My Contacts, My Contacts Except, and Nobody without leaving the About screen.

The redesigned About section is rolling out to beta testers running WhatsApp beta for Android 2.26.24.1, available through the Google Play Store.

Related article: New WhatsApp message menu UI design comes from iPhone