Khaberni - Coinciding with the start of the new year 2026, WhatsApp has launched a series of new features related to providing an enhanced experience for users whether in messaging or video calls and the updates also extended to statuses, to facilitate the process of sending greetings and celebrating virtually among friends and families, especially if they are in different countries.
The new features included adding a pack of stickers for the year 2026, these stickers were specially designed for New Year's greetings, to add a fun touch to your daily conversations, alongside celebration images, WhatsApp highlighted some of its current tools that will help you plan your New Year's gatherings better.
WhatsApp updates for New Year 2026
According to wabetainfo, the updates that affected the WhatsApp application to celebrate the new year included video calls, where users can now add animated effects like fireworks, paper clippings, and glitter during video calls to celebrate the new year.
Also, the feature of animated paper clippings, which allows the user to use them and run them as animations inside the conversation, WhatsApp also added animated stickers to the status updates, where you can use the new 2026 design with animated elements to make your status posts distinctive during the holiday season.
Other new tools came in the WhatsApp update represented in the planning tools for New Year's gatherings, which allow the user the ability to pin events in chat groups and conduct polls to confirm attendance, and in turn, the app announced that these new tools are available for users of both Android and IOS systems.
New Features from WhatsApp on Apple Watch
With the start of the new year, WhatsApp announced its intention to provide richer messaging features for Apple Watch users, after enabling users to perform many of these basic interactions directly from the wrist, such as reading and writing full messages, sending voice messages, viewing the chat history, and interacting with conversations using emojis.
WhatsApp is currently working on adding WhatsApp call functions directly to the Apple Watch, and this idea will enable users to receive, respond to, and manage WhatsApp calls directly from their wrist, without needing to use their phones, and although the feature is currently under development, WhatsApp promised to work on it in the future update.
