Have you ever received a youtube link in your WhatsApp conversations? Clicking the link takes you to the YouTube app / website. Well in this day and age, most applications such as Flipboard and even G-reader play YouTube videos within their interface. WhatsApp has been playing a catch up game and we are glad it is finally sorting up YouTube links.
In an upcoming update, video links will play inside the WhatsApp conversation. The update will take advantage of the picture-in-picture feature of iOS platform; this means that a small window will float on top of the conversation interface. A pinch to zoom gesture will resize the window, but you can still watch the video in full screen if you so desire.
You will be able to continue chatting with your buddy as the video plays however, leaving the conversation which has the link and entering another one will automatically stop the video streaming; it’s the same way WhatsApp handles audio playback.
At the moment, testing for this YouTube addition is only happening for the iOS version of the chat app starting with iPhone 6 going forward. No report has been released to confirm the same about other platforms. You need not to worry though, the company often evens out all platforms with similar features before a public release. Also, Android has been handling floating video windows long before the developers at Apple even thought about it, heck the YouTube app is already utilizing the feature on all its official apps, not to mention Samsung video players since the days of the Galaxy S3.
This information comes right after the company made live an update that will let users send any type of file. Head to the Google PlayStore or the Apple AppStore and grab the update it while it’s still hot. It seems WhatsApp is dedicated to remove all previous restrictions it had on media and file transfers, and we couldn’t be happier.
