Mystery about new WhatsApp icon: when the blue circle appears around the profile picture

• WhatsApp marks some profiles with a blue circle in the chat list.
• This indicates that a new status has been published.
• Previously, these were only available via the “Status” tab. Now also directly from the chat list.

A change is currently causing a stir at WhatsApp. In Messenger, some of you are suddenly seeing a blue circle around the profile picture of certain contacts in the chat view, as evidenced by increasing Google Trends searches and tweets. What’s it all about?

New status message icon

WhatsApp shows you that the person in question has published a status or an update on this. Previously, this was only visible via the “Status” tab. Now the messenger shows you this directly in the chat list.

The “WhatsApp Status” is a slide show of images, videos and texts that you can create with Messenger and share with your contacts. It is only visible for 24 hours and then automatically deletes itself. The feature is comparable to the stories on Instagram.

Also interesting…

Apparently only available on selected devices for the time being

However, the change does not appear to have been activated for all users yet. On Twitter, there are mainly reports from English-speaking countries, the earliest dates from September 14th. In the past few days, the reports have initially increased, but there have been no new tweets since October 6th.

Apparently, the company is only slowly rolling out the change to more devices. In our editorial office, it was only visible on an iPhone. An update to version 22.20.75 has also been available for the iPhone app since October 3rd. In the changelog for this, however, no blue circles are mentioned.

However, a survey of our readers and reports on Twitter show that the circles are already visible on some Android phones. The last update for the Android app is dated October 12th, but does not show any blue circles on the editorial devices. It is possible that the change has been present in the code of the apps for some time and is gradually being activated by WhatsApp on the server side for more and more accounts.

WhatsApp is currently proceeding in a similar way with the new features call links and hiding the online status.

Maybe it’s just a test among selected users with which WhatsApp wants to find out whether status messages get more access as a result. This is supported by the fact that of the around 1,100 readers who took part in our survey, only just under 30 percent were shown it. So far, Messenger has not officially commented on the blue circle.

The first tests took place in May

The change does not come as a complete surprise, however. She had already been discovered in the beta version of the messenger in May. At that time, the circles here were still green to match the WhatsApp logo. They were previously also displayed in this color in the “Status” tab.

The fact that WhatsApp has now chosen blue as the color may have something to do with the competition. Facebook and Snapchat have long used a blue circle around the profile picture to mark new status updates. On Instagram, on the other hand, a colorful circle can be seen around the profile picture.

If you don’t want to wait for the change to be activated for your device, you can alternatively use the WhatsApp clone Watusi. This gives WhatsApp an Instagram-like look. However, you risk having your account blocked. In addition, Watusi is only available for download for the iPhone.

Another new icon coming soon?

WhatsApp could soon integrate another new icon into Messenger. We’ll tell you right now what the circles next to the blue ticks in the app mean.