WhatsApp rolls out the ability to draft your messages for later

WhatsApp just dropped a new feature, and it’s one many users have been requesting for a while: “Message Drafts”. This means you’ll never have to worry about losing a half-written message again.  If you get distracted or interrupted while writing, WhatsApp will now save your message as a draft.

The way it works is pretty simple.  Whenever you start typing a message but don’t send it, WhatsApp will put a little green “Draft” indicator on the chat.  This indicator also shows up in your chat list, along with a preview of the message you started writing.  And to make things even easier, any chats with drafts will be bumped to the top of your chat list so you can quickly find them and finish what you were saying.

This update brings WhatsApp more in line with other messaging apps like Google Messages, which have had similar draft features for a while. It’s a small change, but it makes a big difference in terms of convenience.  No more lost thoughts or forgotten replies.

But that’s not all. WhatsApp has been busy rolling out other new features lately too. Remember the Custom Lists feature from a couple of weeks ago?  That lets you organize your chats with tags like “work”, “friends”, or “family”. You can even create your own custom tags to really personalize your chat list.

Additionally, WhatsApp is apparently working on an update that will let you use a username instead of a phone number. This means you might eventually be able to use WhatsApp on any device without needing your phone nearby.  It’s still in the works, but it sounds like it will include a cool synchronization feature to keep your contacts up-to-date across all your devices.

Personally, I’m really liking these updates from WhatsApp. The “Message Drafts” feature is something I know I’ll probably end up using all the time. And the idea of using WhatsApp without a phone number is a feature that I have been wanting for a while as well. It’ll be interesting to see how they implement that and what kind of impact it has on how people use the app.  It seems like WhatsApp is really stepping up its game lately.