WhatsApp will become more social: cover images coming to WhatsApp, like Facebook

Users who use Facebook are familiar with the cover images: these are 16:9 photos used to customize one’s profile, available in the mobile app and in the desktop version of Zuckerberg’s social network.

This feature will also come to WhatsApp, although at the moment it is only a first sighting thanks to the latest iOS beta. However the software provides enough to understand how the new cover images of the messaging app will work.

WhatsApp is testing cover images in Facebook style: here’s how they will work

As of this writing, WhatsApp’s new feature is in development and is not yet available for active use. The cover images are ‘hidden’ within the iOS app beta 26.1.10.73 of the app, but the WABetaInfo team has managed to pull out several details.

In the future WhatsApp users will be able to add a cover image to their profile, in a format similar to the one used by Facebook. It can be edited, repositioned or removed at any time, independently of the profile photo and other information.

In the privacy settings it will be possible to make the cover visible to Everyone (or to Nobody or only to My contacts), just as with online status and the profile photo.

As highlighted a little above, WhatsApp cover images are not yet available and we don’t know when they will be. One thing is certain: the development team is working to progressively implement new features (such as the long-awaited support for multiple accounts).