WhatsApp's new gallery reactions are rolling out to beta testers today

WhatsApp message thread on iPhone X (Image credit: Luke Filipowicz/iMore)

What you need to know

WhatsApp is rolling out gallery reaction changes to beta testers.
People will be able to see which media people have reacted to more easily.

We heard recently that WhatsApp was planning to test a change that would make it easier for people to see reactions to media inside a gallery and now the instant messaging service has begun to roll it out to beta testers.

Currently, reactions to media in a gallery just show as a general reaction — not what the reaction was to. According to WABetaInfo, that's all changing with the latest iOS WhatsApp beta.

People were already able to see reactions within an album so what's the difference between the two versions? In the previous version, users could not understand which photos or videos from an automatic album received a reaction without opening it. Thanks to this feature, beta users can now see a media thumbnail right within the reaction info: the media thumbnail helps the user understand which media has been reacted to in an automatic album.

Whatsapp Album Image Liking Screenshot (Image credit: Screenshot showing a preview of how image liking could work in albums)

There is no indication of when the feature will be rolled out to everyone, including those who are using the version of WhatsApp available in the App Store. But it's a feature that makes plenty of sense and would undoubtedly be a big improvement for heavy gallery users.

WhatsApp is one of the best iPhone apps for people who need to stay in touch with people who use non-Apple devices. Changes like this are always welcome and the Meta-owned outfit is normally pretty good at making sure that features make their way from TestFlight beta to the App Store relatively quickly. Fingers crossed we the same here.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.