WhatsApp seems to be working on ‘Vacation Mode,’ a feature which will no longer unarchive chats after they are archived. The current state of the chat will automatically unarchive whenever a new message is received from that Chat. This new feature will be available in WhatsApp settings when it is released.
Muted or archived chats won’t be unarchived until you unmute or unarchive them. This is something that would be really helpful. The Vacation mode is also useful if you don’t want a specific chat in your Chats List. Since it is in the testing phase, the feature is not available just yet. WhatsApp has also enabled a new feature for Android, that allows hiding the app badge for muted chats. This again is a very helpful feature considering how annoying it can get to see badges for muted apps.
WhatsApp is also said to be working on a new feature that allows users to link your account with external services. The feature appears mainly developed for WhatsApp Business, but some references were found in the normal WhatsApp app too. It’s not available yet for both apps. The Linked Accounts option will be available under your Profile Settings.
At the moment, only Instagram is present as supported external service. This would allow users to link their Instagram profile by entering their credentials. The ‘Linked Accounts’ feature would help users recover the password. It will allow to automatically share your status updates in Instagram. Since all of these features are currently in the testing phase, it might be a while before we see them in action.