The messaging platform has rolled out a new update to its iOS app that will allow users to play YouTube videos within the app itself. Now, when your bestie sends you a YouTube link and you click on it, the video will play directly in WhatsApp, unlike before where it would open the video either in the YouTube app or your browser.
You can also keep playing the video while you navigate to another chat, with a feature that WhatsApp refers to as "picture-in-picture".
The feature is not yet enabled, but WhatsApp news website WABetaInfo believes it will begin working soon.
Though this is a small update, it has the potential to fix an all-too-common annoyance for many users. You can now watch videos alongside your friends, rather than having to pause your conversation, possibly getting pulled down a YouTube autoplay hole as more videos get cued up.
This type of integration with third-party apps is new for the traditionally bare-bones user experience of WhatsApp. Will the Facebook-owned service heading down the same path as its cousin, Facebook Messenger, and become a more immersive, integrated user experience? This could be the first step.
