WhatsApp adds voice mail, new font style in latest beta

The hugely popular WhatsApp is slowing evolving into a fully-featured messaging service. The latest additions in terms of functionality, now rolling out to the beta version of the app, are a brand new voicemail feature and the ability to use monospace text formatting.

We first heard about voicemail and call-back support in WhatsApp a few months ago, when text related to the features showed up in translation requests.

Now the feature is going live for beta users. Here’s how it works: if you call someone on WhatsApp and the other person doesn’t pick up or declines the call, you will see a screen that lets you quickly call back or record and send a voice message. The ability to send voice messages isn’t new, but now WhatsApp is integrating it in the calling interface, bringing the app closer to the way a conventional phone call works.

Next, WhatsApp is adding a new text formatting option, monospace text. We’re not sure there are lots of users who were eagerly anticipating this new text style, but the trick to activate it is to add three accent symbols (`) before the text. Monospace joins bold, italic, and strikethrough in the panoply of formatting options offered by WhatsApp.

The WhatsApp beta program is hosted in the Play Store, and you can join it from here. Let us know what you think of the new features.