WhatsApp makes U-turn on 'Status' feature, rolling back its biggest recent update

“We heard from our users that people missed the ability to set a persistent text-only update in their profile, so we’ve integrated this feature into the ‘About’ section in profile settings," a spokesperson said. "Now, the update will appear next to profile names anytime you view contacts, such as when creating a new chat or looking at Group info.

"At the same time, we’re continuing to build on the new Status feature that gives people fun and engaging ways to share photos, videos and GIFs with their friends and family throughout their day.”


The change was already available in the beta version of WhatsApp. It will be added to the proper Android app next week and will come soon to the iPhone.

The text statuses were part of WhatsApp since the very beginning, and it was in fact originally designed around them. They allowed people to set a Facebook-style message to accompany their name – "at work", or "battery about to die", for instance – that would show up when they talking to people.

But Facebook presented the addition of stories as a way of updating those statuses, adding pictures, videos and gifs that people could view. In doing so they got rid of the old text messages – and provoked a huge outcry in doing so.

Facebook has been adding the stories features to all of its apps, and completed that work with the recent addition of them to the official Facebook app.

While the company has been criticised for copying the feature from Snapchat, it has proved popular, and now Instagram's stories alone are more popular than the entirety of its ghostly rival.