I’ve written a couple of stories by now that mention that Facebook owns WhatsApp, but my mind refuses to register the reality of the situation.

In general, I hate the fact that Facebook owns Facebook, so the prospect of them poking around in my preferred direct messaging service is less than ideal.

There’ll be no denying it going forward, because one of the many changes that the app is making in the near future is a name change.

WhatsApp will soon be known as ‘WhatsApp from Facebook’.

They’re doing the same thing to Instagram.

MyBroadband tells us why:

This move is not without its controversy. This is because the founders of both of these apps are no longer involved in these applications, with Facebook having purchased both of these platforms once they had already become popular.

Some would argue that saying that these apps are “from Facebook” therefore misrepresents the origins of the respective services.

When asked why the company had made this change, a spokesperson said: “We want to be clearer about the products and services that are part of Facebook.”

The name isn’t the only change taking place. Here’s what you can expect from the app in the near future:

Adverts and business catalogues

Facebook has decided to start showing adverts on WhatsApp’s status page from the beginning of 2020.

Sigh.

This is an effort to make more money for Facebook, which I’m assuming they’ll use to fly Zuckerberg to Oz to look for a heart with the help of a lion, a scarecrow, and a Republican.

Cryptocurrency

Facebook has announced the launch of its Calibra cryptocurrency wallet, which will be available in WhatsApp as well as in Messenger and as a standalone app, in 2020.

“The first product Calibra will introduce is a digital wallet for Libra, a new global currency powered by blockchain technology,” Facebook said.

“From the beginning, Calibra will let you send Libra to almost anyone with a smartphone, as easily and instantly as you might send a text message and at low to no cost.”

“In time, we hope to offer additional services for people and businesses, like paying bills with the push of a button, buying a cup of coffee with the scan of a code or riding your local public transit without needing to carry cash or a metro pass.”

They say that the app will come equipped with strong security measures.

For more on why I wouldn’t trust that cryptocurrency, go here.

Multi-device support

This will allow WhatsApp users to use their accounts on iOS and Android devices simultaneously, as well as through an upcoming standalone WhatsApp app for desktop that will not require your phone to be connected to the internet.

That one could actually be useful.

Facebook and QR code integration

If you’re the type of person who actually updates your status on WhatsApp on the regular, you can save a bit of time by automatically sharing your update to Facebook as well.

But seriously, who does that? No judgement, I’m just curious…

Edit media

Over the course of its next few updates, WhatsApp plans on enabling a media editing feature.

This will allow users to edit media they have either sent or received from within the WhatsApp app.

To do this, users will need to choose an “edit” option when they have opened media from within a chat, which will redirect the user to the image editing screen.

The edited image will not replace the original version, but will instead create a duplicate.

The feature will be available on both iOS and Android devices.

Voice Commands

I look forward to the accidental messages that will be sent via this new feature.

A feature has recently been enabled that allows Android phone users to read and reply to WhatsApp messages by using voice commands.

This is done by saying “read my messages” to Google’s Assistant.

This is in line with recent trends towards smart assistants as common means of consuming content and performing digital tasks.

And that’s everything coming your way sometime soon.

For now, anyway.

[source:mybroadband]