WhatsApp Introduces ‘Calendar Search’ Option to Facilitate Retrieval of Older Messages: Report

Widespread availability of the new features would streamline the process of searching for messages within chat histories.

WhatsApp is the most popularly used instant messaging application worldwide. The Meta-owned application is known to consistently innovate its interface to offer the best of user-friendly features. Using WhatsApp is fairly simple, however, what if you want to search for an old message, whose keywords you may not recall? Resultantly, one would be expected to scroll endlessly through the chats.

The good news is that this may change soon. Reportedly, WhatsApp is testing a new calendar search option for WhatsApp Web beta. It seems that this new feature is now available in the beta version of the Android app.

According to a report on AndroidPolice.com, individual and group chat searches now offer a small calendar icon in the search field. Clicking on the icon would reveal a calendar. However, the report also stated that it seemed like a server-side change as no beta channel has reported the sighting of the icon. Reportedly, the feature was found enabled with WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.23.26.16. It is to be noted that the most recent version is 2.23.26.17, which was launched earlier today.

The widespread availability of these new features is anticipated to simplify the process of searching for messages within chat histories. According to the report, when using the search function, accessible either from the three-dot menu or through a user group profile, users will notice the presence of a calendar icon. Currently, navigating through months or days requires users to swipe or use left/right arrows. The search-by-date feature is expected to be rolled out on additional devices in the near future. Additionally, WhatsApp is gearing up to introduce several other exciting features, as suggested by recent beta versions, promising an engaging period ahead.

Notably, this isn’t the first instance of WhatsApp reportedly working on a calendar search. Earlier reports indicated that WhatsApp had been developing a similar functionality for iPhones since June 2020.