WhatsApp quietly rolls out tool to share status on Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO

Facebook-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp has begun rolling out a feature for Android users to let them share their status stories directly on Facebook Story and other apps.

Just like Instagram, WhatsApp's status Stories let users post images, text and videos on your profile that disappear after 24 hours.

WhatsApp hasn't made an official announcement yet but several users reported this on Twitter.

"So WhatsApp has a new feature, you can share your story on WhatsApp to Facebook. For me, this is quite interesting, a centralized mode of communicating to various platforms," posted one user.

"The New #WhatsApp update allows you to share your statuses on to your #FacebookStory as well," wrote another.

To use this feature, tap on share button which will show you the apps you can share your WhatsApp status with.

Tapping on "Share to Facebook Story" will let you share WhatsApp Status to Facebook Story.

Currently, there was no option to have WhatsApp status automatically shared to another service and the instant messaging app intends that the feature should be an active decision on the part of the user.

The roll out appears to be part of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plan to create a unified app combining WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram to let over 2.6 billion users communicate with each other cross-apps by 2020.

The move could let the social networking giant tout higher user engagement to advertisers, thus, ramping up its advertising division at a time when growth has slowed down. — IANS