WhatsApp Will Switch To A One-Tab, Vertically-Scrolling Gallery Attachment Page
The people at WhatsApp must feel like their app’s interface is stuck in the past because recent weeks have seen several changes (and leaks of changes) to the way the application looks. Today, thanks to AssembleDebug on X, we know yet another UI tweak that WhatsApp is about to have.
WhatsApp is set to change the interface you see when you attempt to send any piece of media from your gallery to someone on WhatsApp. Previously, this screen had two tabs. One tab was “Recents” for all media from the latest added to your device to the oldest, while the other tab was “Gallery” which arranged everything into appropriate folders.
However, instead of two tabs, what is currently planned in the beta is to use a single vertically scrolling page. At the top of this page are the image folders and it’s at the bottom that you’ll find the Recents section. This cleans up the interface to a degree, but if you’d prefer recent images to be given priority, this doesn’t help in that regard.
That’s Not The Only Place That WhatsApp Is Making Changes
The WhatsApp team at Meta is making a lot of changes to the interface of the application, likely to promote a more modern look for the app. Just this week, I noticed that quite a few UI changes went live in the app. For instance, you might have heard people complaining about a slight tweak that WhatsApp made to the shade of green used in the app for the send button, unread chat numbers, and so on. It’s gotten a little more “neon”, and while I don’t mind it, a lot of people do.
The homepage of the app has also gone edge-to-edge, with a single color being used from top to bottom, whether that’s white in light mode or a really dark navy blue in dark mode. If you hold down on a message in a chat, you’ll also see that the icons at the top of the screen have been revised to be thinner and simpler. Again, I don’t mind, but I don’t necessarily see it as a positive. The navigation bar moved to the bottom of the screen, and that’s one change I am certainly a fan of; it’s better for one-handed use.
And of course, I can’t end this without adding the UI change that is the Meta AI button as well as the Meta AI/Search bar at the top of the homepage. Meta AI is one of the biggest functional updates we’ve seen to WhatsApp in quite some time, and while I haven’t used it much at all yet, maybe it’ll find its way into my daily routine if Meta has its way.
