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WhatsApp brings back text Status option after replacing it with Snapchat clone

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CIOL Writers
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Well, this is some news. After months of copying Snapchat features, finally, someone is mending its ways. In mid-February, Facebook-owned Whatsapp replaced the ability for users to set a text-based in-app status with a Snapchat Stories clone. Apparently, after user backlash, the company is re-adding the ability for users to set an availability status through the About section of the messaging app, according to a report from TechCrunch.

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Last week, it was discovered that WhatsApp’s Android beta brought the old status feature back, while also segregating voice and video calling buttons.

In a statement to TechCrunch, WhatsApp noted that the new About Status feature should be rolling out to Android users in the next week, and to iOS users “soon.”

For those of you who liked the new feature, WhatsApp is not abandoning the new, Snapchat-style status either. ".....we’re continuing to build on the new Status feature that gives people fun and engaging ways to share photos, videos and GIFs with their friends and family throughout their day,” WhatsApp said in a statement.

From Facebook to Instagram to Messenger to Viber, everybody seems to be in awe of Snapchat stories that allows users to post pictures and videos that disappear after 24 hours. WhatsApp hoped that the picture and video stories would serve a similar function as the text-based statuses, but apparently users felt differently.

We hope this will provide a much-needed lesson to social media platforms to stop their unabashed copying of Snapchat features and instead build on their popular features.