What you need to know

• WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature that will allow users to add contacts or groups with whom they most frequently chat to a "Favorites" tab.

• To add a contact or group to your favorite list, select the “Favorites” filter from the chats screen or tap the “Add Favorite” option after selecting a contact or group from the calls tab.

• This feature will be available on iOS and Android versions starting today and will gradually roll out to everyone in the coming weeks

Whatsapp has been making several changes to its platform in the past couple of weeks, and the latest is one to be happy about.

According to the company's blog post, starting today (July 16) users can choose their favorite contacts or groups on the app, making it easier for users to pull up those they frequently text.

The "Favorites" option appears like a separate filter that keeps chats with your family group or best friend all under one tab. Whatsapp also added this feature to the calling option, much like the speed dial option on the phone. The favorites picked on the chats tab will reflect on the calls tab as well, so users don't have to go through their call history or manually search for the people they want to contact.

To add a contact or group to your favorite list, select the “Favorites” filter from the chats screen or tap the “Add favorite” option after selecting a contact or group from the calls tab.

Users can also add a chat to their Favorites by tapping and holding on to the chat and selecting “Add to favorite" from the options. The messaging app states that users can manage their favorite contacts and groups by going to Settings > Favorites > Add to Favorite. The best part is you can re-arrange the order of these contacts at anytime.

whatsapp feature update

Back in February, WABetaInfo spotted that Whatsapp was working on introducing a favorite contacts feature in a beta update. Whatsapp currently allows users to pin only three chats to the top of their chat list; however, introducing this Favorites tab will solve this issue easily by letting you choose as many favorite people/groups as you like.

This feature will be available on iOS and Android versions starting today and will gradually roll out to everyone in the coming weeks.

Recently, Whatsapp announced that the app supports "Speaker spotlight," which highlights the person talking and moves them to the front alongside audio during a screen share. It is also working on another feature called "Imagine me," which allows users to create an AI-generated picture of themselves using Meta AI's chatbot. This is followed by a text prompt that lets the user tweak the image to place themselves in different settings.