WhatsApp for iOS update brings support for media previews, search improvements

One of the most popular instant messengers, WhatsApp has just received a small but important update that enables at least one highly-requested feature – media preview. If you're rocking an iPhone and have WhatsApp installed, then you probably know that all images received in chat are tagged with a camera emoji in notifications, which means you'll always have to open the app to check the image or video.

With the latest update, that is no longer necessary since WhatsApp announced its app now supports media previews. If your iOS device supports 3D Touch, a hard press on notifications will show you the media without having to open WhatsApp. Another option would be to swipe left on the notifications and tap View to see the media preview.

To make things even easier, WhatsApp now allows iOS users to download images and GIFs directly from the notifications, but only the media auto-download option is disabled.

Apparently, the new media previews feature does not work for everyone, but WhatsApp is aware of the issue and promised another update that will fix the problem will be released in just a few days.

Besides support for media previews, the update also brings improvements to search that will allow users to find status updates directly from the Status tab.

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