WhatsApp is going back to the past for its latest feature. In fact, it’s going all the way back, because it’s reviving the very first WhatsApp feature. You can think of About (the creators were really not very good at naming things, huh?) as a status update or WhatsApp’s version of an AIM away message. It’s designed to let your contacts know at a glance what you’ve got going on, such as something that’s keeping you busy and might make you slow to respond to messages.
The About message appears on both your profile and at the top of one-on-one chats. By default, the About message will vanish after 24 hours, but you can set it to vanish earlier or stick around for longer. You can do this by going to the “set about” option in the WhatsApp settings. You also have control over who is able to see your About message — you can restrict it to your contacts or allow anyone to view it from your profile.
This is a handy little update that apes the notes feature in sibling apps Instagram and Facebook. WhatsApp is starting to roll About (back) out to all users on mobile devices this week.
Illustration of the About feature in WhatsApp (Meta)
