Major updates, features coming for WhatsApp, Instagram

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a number of major future updates for the application, including for the Facebook-owned companies WhatsApp and Instagram, at its annual conference.

At its F8 annual conference held on May 1, Facebook CEO shared updates which are to be rolled out soon. Apart from updating Facebook, the CEO shared future updates for its other two platforms, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Starting with WhatsApp, Facebook also shared plans for its messaging application by revealing that group video chat will soon be made available to its users. Video calls are also coming to Instagram. The video chat feature allows the user to chat with a single person or a small group, and can continue to chat while browsing through Instagram, The Verge reports.

WhatsApp co-founder and CEO bids goodbye to parent company Facebook

Moreover, another future update for Instagram is that the company will filter out bullying comments from posts. “Our Community Guidelines have always prohibited bullying on our platform, and I’m proud to announce this next step in our ongoing commitment to keeping Instagram an inclusive, supportive place for all voices,” read a post by the Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom.

Instagram’s ‘Explore’ tab will also undergo a makeover, which will allow users to browse by topics of interests instead of a compilation of all images, making it hard for the user to browse on topics of their choice.

The conference not only came during a growing data breach scandal at Facebook, but it was also held less than a day after WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum called it quits to take ‘some time off to do things I enjoy outside of technology.’ Facebook has refused to comment on the reasons for his departure.