WhatsApp updates to add GIFs, mentions; Two Factor Authentication, Video Calls, Bots coming soon

WhatsApp is gradually rolling out the long anticipated contact mentions the feature in addition to GIF support. Both the features seem to be live for iOS users while only the mention feature works for Android users on stable Google play store version. One thing to note is that the GIF support is hidden for normal users and it needs to be enabled by the company.The mention feature, as previously reported, works only in group chats where you can tag users like on Facebook comments with '@' followed by the name of the contact. Developers have rolled out the ability for iOS users to view the GIF images but the users can not send GIFs to others while using the Apple App store version.Developers are currently working on implementing the Two-Factor-Authentication in the app where you can ensure the safety of your WhatsApp using the added security layer. Even though it does not make much sense because WhatsApp already informs the user if a WhatsApp web session is active, alerting them of any intruders snooping on their account. Moreover, the Two-Factor-Authentication would not work if a hacker or user gets hands on their mobile device which is not secured using a pin or password on the lock screen.WhatsApp has updated the strings to notify users about video calls. Even though the feature is hidden right now, we can anticipate Video Call roll out soon, similar to the rollout of mentions feature. Another thing to note, as pointed by WABetaInfo is that WhatsApp Privacy Policy has pointed out at the possibility of the arrival of bots to the popular multimedia messaging platform. This looks to work in conjunction with the feature rollout state for the Facebook messenger.