WhatsApp Status gets a Snapchat inspired makeover

After rolling out Snapchat's Stories format for iOS beta users last week, Facebook-owned WhatsApp is now completely ditching its old text-based status messages format for all the platforms.

Yes, the Facebook is now copying the Stories format for the fourth time. Instagram was the first, in August, which was followed by Facebook Messenger and then Facebook itself.

Like Snapchat, users can use in-app camera to post photos and video clips and edit them with drawings, text, and emoji. The story will appear in the new “status” tab, which will be visible for the next 24 hours. Users can also reply privately and use privacy setting to set a tab on who can view your stories. Sending media to specific friends is still done through message threads.

Though it is just another 'clone' shot of Snapchat, WhatsApp is rolling the feature under the end-to-end encrypted blanket that WhatsApp is famously known for. "Yes, even your status updates are end-to-end encrypted" CEO Jan Koum wrote in a blog post.

“When WhatsApp launched nearly 8 years ago (on February 24), it started as an app for sharing status updates, where people could type a short line of text to let their friends know what they were up to,” the company said. “When we noticed people were using the feature to communicate in real time, we redesigned WhatsApp as a messaging app.”

WhatsApp started testing the feature for beta users in November, and now the Status tab is rolling out worldwide on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. WhatsApp's new Status feature is available now in France and the Netherlands and will hit the UK, Spain, Israel and Saudi Arabia before a wider rollout in the coming weeks.

WhatsApp currently has 1.2 billion monthly users, with users sending 60 billion messages per day, including 3.3 billion photos, 760 million videos and 80 million GIFs.

Notably, the timing is perfect, not only because WhatsApp will be celebrating its eighth anniversary next week, but also because Snap is on its way for the IPO. Will Snapchat's parent company see any effect on its offering because of WhatsApp's latest update? Apparently, after Instagram Stories feature was rolled out, Snapchat witnessed a massive drop-off of 82 percent in its user growth rate.