New WhatsApp beta reveals a long-awaited advanced search option and more secure backups

Recently, WhatsApp has been getting a lot of features, most of which are related to the fight against the coronavirus misinformation spread. However, this time, the new features are not COVID-19 related. There is a new beta for WhatsApp Android that has been revealed and WABetaInfo reports that it is offering us some appealing functionalities.

Firstly, there is a feature referred to as “Advanced Search Mode” which will offer a possibility to easily search for media, such as photos, videos, GIFs, links and audio, as well as documents, in the messages. The search feature is still under development for Android users and already available in the beta for iOS, but there is no official information when it will be rolled out and if it will be available at all. However, it will be very helpful for people who have a lot of messages to filter in order to find that one link.

Another feature in WhatsApp’s beta for Android is related to the automatic download. When enabled, which will be by default, the option will not automatically download frequently forwarded images, videos, documents and voice messages and will, therefore, help you save data.

Last but not least: here comes the more secure password-protected backup option. The feature to backup your chat history is already available for WhatsApp users and the data is saved to Google Drive, but with the new update, you will be able to protect your backups with a password. However, the password will not be stored on Google Drive, neither will it be synced to Facebook’s servers, so if you forget it, you won’t be able to access your data.

The aforementioned features are not available globally yet, they are a part of the beta version of WhatsApp. If you would like to test future versions of WhatsApp, you can register from this page on Google Play, even though, currently, the page says that no more testers are allowed at the time being.