WhatsApp is working on a major quality-of-life update that will finally let users see who is available to chat at a single glance. Much like Facebook Messenger, which shows the people who are online, this will eliminate the need to manually go to their chats and see if they're online.
WhatsApp's "Online" Contacts section can mark the end of chat-hopping
Spotted by WABetaInfo in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android (version 2.26.13.3), the platform is developing a dedicated section that lists the contacts that are currently online. Currently, the only way to check someone's availability is to open their chat manually. This new hub, located in the app settings, will eliminate that friction.
Once rolled out, users can sort this list alphabetically or by online status. When sorted by status, active contacts will be pinned to the top, while offline users will be listed in order of their most recent activity.
In addition to showing online friends, the top of this section will act as an address book. WhatsApp will actively suggest saving the numbers of unknown contacts you frequently interact with, particularly those you speak to in shared group chats.
Users can choose to opt out of these, as WhatsApp will let them disable the features in visibility settings. For those unaware, if a contact has disabled their last seen timestamp, they will only appear when actively online. And if they've hidden their online status entirely, they will remain completely invisible on this list.
With the feature still in development, it's not expected to roll out immediately. Just like the previous WhatsApp Beta features, like Guest Chats that recently rolled out in WhatsApp Beta, the Online Contacts Hub feature could start rolling out in the coming months, so stay tuned. Besides, WhatsApp will soon introduce a Plus tier, bringing unified chat settings for custom lists
