WhatsApp gets starred messages, rich preview links and more in latest update

WhatsApp, one of the most popular mobile messaging services on Android, is getting quite the handful of useful features in its latest update. New in version 2.12.367 is the ability to star messages to find them later, support for Android Direct Share, and rich previews when sending links.

First and foremost, the ability to star messages has been a heavily requested feature for some time, so we’re sure many users will be happy with this one. All you need to do is simply tap and hold on any message in a chat to star it, allowing you to easily find it later (similar to a bookmark). You can even browse your starred messages by navigating to the Chats tab > Menu > Starred Messages. It’s a small feature, but will definitely come in handy.

Also new in WhatsApp is the ability to send or receive links with a rich preview. You can also choose to send links without rich previews if you so choose.

Lastly, WhatsApp has added support for Direct Share, which was introduced in Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Direct Share allows you to share things with more specific targets. For instance, if you’d like to share a link with a contact in WhatsApp, in the past you’d need to click the share button, scroll down to WhatsApp, select your contact and send the link. Now that WhatsApp has built in support for this feature, you’ll quickly be able to choose a specific WhatsApp chat directly from the share menu. How neat!

This big ol’ update is now live in the Google Play Store, so head to the link below to grab the latest version.