WhatsApp is rolling out 12 new capabilities, many with compelling enterprise-friendly possibilities, including video notes for channels.
Among the new features are several enhancements to video calls, voice message transcripts, document scanning, and more. As with most WhatsApp updates, there are myriad enterprise-suitable applications that continue the platform’s evolution into a viable communications solution for many organisations.
Breaking Down the New Features and Their Enterprise Applications
Among the updates to WhatsApp’s Chats functionality is the online indicator in group chats. This new feature lets users instantly see how many members are online. For IT and UC leaders managing distributed or hybrid teams, this real-time visibility into group availability can enhance team coordination and responsiveness—enabling more efficient decision-making and reducing delays in collaborative workflows.
WhatsApp also rolled out a new “Notify for” setting in group chats, designed to help users better manage notification overload. By selecting the “Highlights” option, you’ll only receive alerts for key interactions—such as @mentions, direct replies, and messages from your saved contacts. Alternatively, choosing “All” ensures you’re notified of every message posted in the group. In high-traffic team channels or project-based group chats, the “Highlights” setting empowers employees to focus on the most relevant updates without being overwhelmed—boosting productivity and ensuring critical messages are not lost.
WhatsApp has expanded its event-planning capabilities, including group chats and one-on-one conversations. New features include the ability to RSVP as “maybe,” bring a plus-one, define both start and end times for extended events and pin the event within the chat for easy access. For professionals coordinating meetings, client check-ins, or team availability, these enhanced event tools streamline scheduling and make it easier to manage logistics.
WhatsApp for iPhone now includes a built-in document scanning feature, enabling users to digitise and share paperwork directly within a chat. This functionality is ideal for mobile professionals who need to quickly share signed contracts, receipts, or project documents on the go—streamlining workflows and reducing the need for third-party scanning apps.
Moving onto the video enhancements, WhatsApp has introduced pinch-to-zoom functionality during video calls on iPhone, allowing users to zoom in on either their own or a participant’s video feed. This feature can be particularly useful in remote support scenarios or product demonstrations.
Users can also now seamlessly expand one-on-one WhatsApp calls without leaving the chat interface. By tapping the call icon within a conversation, an additional participant can be added to the ongoing call in just a few taps. This escalation path supports agile decision-making—enabling managers or team leads to quickly loop in key stakeholders for real-time collaboration without switching tools.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp has enhanced its video calling infrastructure with more intelligent routing and adaptive bandwidth management, delivering smoother, more reliable calls. These upgrades reduce interruptions like freezing and dropped connections while automatically enhancing video quality based on network conditions. These improvements ensure a more stable and professional video-calling experience for distributed teams relying on mobile-first communication.
Lastly, WhatsApp has revealed several major channel updates. For example, channel admins can now record and share quick video updates—up to 60 seconds long—directly with their followers, similar to video notes in chats. Ideal for company news, product updates, or executive briefings, these short-form videos provide a personal and engaging way to keep audiences informed in real time.
Additionally, WhatsApp now transcribes voice messages shared in Channels, offering text summaries for users who can’t listen at the moment. This feature is particularly useful for busy professionals who need to scan updates on the fly—ensuring they stay informed without pausing for audio playback.
Finally, channel admins can now generate a unique QR code that links directly to their WhatsApp Channel, simplifying discovery and audience growth. Organisations can use QR codes at events, in marketing materials, or on product packaging to instantly connect customers and partners with branded comms.
WhatsApp’s Evolution Into a Viable Enterprise Comms Platform
While there are still fallibilities in WhatsApp’s product proposition that some organisations, particularly larger corporates, might be wary of, particularly around its security and compliance infrastructure, WhatsApp has undoubtedly transformed into a far more enterprise-friendly platform in recent years.
In fact, a Vodafone study last year found that WhatsApp is quietly the most popular enterprise comms platform in operation, especially among SMEs.
While WhatsApp may lack the robust security systems or the sophisticated feature sets of a Microsoft Teams or Zoom Workplace, it compensates for those deficiencies with its own distinct and market-dominating USP. WhatsApp supplants the UC&C titans for many (predominantly small and medium-sized) businesses thanks to its elegantly simple UE, its ubiquity among billions of people for consumer use, and, perhaps most critical, its free price point.
However, that hasn’t stopped WhatsApp and parent company Meta from adding new enterprise-friendly features like those detailed above to try to bridge the gulf with Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
Over the past two years, WhatsApp has added a new file-sharing feature, “Nearby Share,” that works similarly to Apple’s AirDrop, WhatsApp Communities as a new way to organise events and the capability to reply to administrator announcements, an enterprise-friendly voice chat upgrade that empowers users to host large groups of up to 128 participants in audio calls, and a call scheduling feature within group chats.
Moreover, last year, Meta outlined that WhatsApp is almost ready to send messages to third-party apps for EU-based users, revealing details about the upcoming update’s new features and enhanced user experience. This will allow users to either integrate WhatsApp messages into a unified inbox alongside third-party chats or manage them separately, depending on organisational preferences.
Additional functionality includes proactive notifications to alert users when they receive messages from external platforms and prompts when new third-party apps become accessible within WhatsApp’s ecosystem. Looking further ahead, Meta has also previewed plans to support cross-platform voice and video calling natively within WhatsApp—an ambitious feature set slated for release in 2027.
WhatsApp is only continuing to build its enterprise-friendly market position.
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