What’s new in WhatsApp: advanced biometric recognition and joining missed group calls

The WhatsApp application continues to be the undisputed leader in Spain, and although applications such as Telegram receive news on a more continuous basis, in the end the user base continues to be for many the main reason to stay in the Facebook messaging client. However, this cannot be an excuse for WhatsApp to be an application that remains static and without improvements.

The truth is that 2020 has been a great year for WhatsApp, and although it has not obtained revolutionary features, we have seen a record in the deployment of small changes that have improved the user experience, as well as other very promising that are They are in development thanks to the betas. Today we know two new functions that have appeared in the latest version.

WhatsApp goes for facial recognition and more possibilities in calls

Just last night the beta version of WhatsApp 2.20.203.3 began to be deployed, and as usual, WABetaInfo has already investigated the features that are hidden in that version.

The first one is being able to join a WhatsApp call in progress. Either because you have not had time to connect, you have dropped the call or you decided to leave it, if you have been invited and the call is still in progress, you can rejoin in a window like the one shown in the image. The example is with a voice call, but hopefully it works with video calls as well.

The other novelty that appears is a change in the settings. The fingerprint recognition option disappears and changes to biometric recognition. Does this mean that we lose the ability to block WhatsApp with our fingerprint? Not much less.

Example of BiometricPrompt, the advanced recognition API that came with Android 10.

With the arrival of Android 10 there was a feature that was not talked about much, and it was the new biometric recognition API. This tool for developers was the next step in security, since it combined all biometric recognition methods as an input method.

The change of WhatsApp seems to adopt this new system on compatible mobiles, allowing the use of fingerprint, facial recognition, iris scanner or any future biometric input method that adapts to the API.

Both novelties are in development and we do not have an arrival date for the application yet.

The entry What’s New in WhatsApp: advanced biometric recognition and joining missed group calls appears first in The Free Android.