WhatsApp is the most popular app for messaging. BBM is rarely used today and is almost extinct. No other messaging app has evolved at the rate WhatsApp has. There are other popular messaging apps – Skype, WeChat, SnapChat and others. But when it comes to security and privacy, Facebook’s WhatsApp scores high. From end-to-end encryption security feature to the option that lets users disable “last seen” status – all these new features and enhancements continue to make WhatsApp more popular than ever.
One good thing about Facebook is that constantly strives to make WhatsApp better by releasing periodic updates and security fixes. With every new update, the app continues to become better and more secure. Although not all updates bring in new features, they address many security bugs and other bugs. So it’s important to keep your WhatsApp updated to the latest version.
Beta versions 2.16.342 and above have a new feature, called WhatsApp Status. This is very much similar to the Stories feature in SnapChat. With the new beta update, you can see a separate tab named “Status” alongside the existing “Calls” and “Chats” tabs. Until now, you could only enter text in the Status field. With this update, you can also add an image and also see who viewed your status. The feature will also be available in the stable versions of the app, once the beta cycle ends.
In case you haven’t updated WhatsApp yet, the latest beta version 2.16.354 is now available for download. The file size is about 32MB and the APK download file can be installed on all devices running Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread MR1, API 10). The APK should work without any issues on all Android 6.0 Marshmallow devices too. This particular beta version doesn’t come with any specific new feature but bring with it the usual bug fixes and security enhancements.
You can download WhatsApp 2.16.354 APK from apkmirror.com.