WhatsApp on Android moved the navigation bar down – Kommersant

WhatsApp messenger (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and is banned) changed Android application design: the navigation bar is now at the bottom of the application, and not at the top, as it was before. The company claims that they did this for convenience, since users no longer need to reach with their thumb to the top of the screen.

The new panel has four tabs (like the previous one), but the “Status” section has changed to “Updates”. The order of the tabs has also changed: “Chats”, “Updates”, “Communities” and “Calls”. The panel color has changed from green to white, and each section now has an icon (previously only the Communities tab had one). Messenger updates are already available to all users.

Previously WhatsApp updated display of statuses: if previously you had to go to the user’s profile to view the status, now all contact statuses are collected in one “Updates” tab, pinned on top of chats, similar to Stories from other applications. Also messenger testing converting voice messages to text.

Evgeniy Fedunenko