Meta-owned Facebook has consistently updated its new UWP client for WhatsApp Windows 10 and Windows 11 beta, introduced last year. It comes at the time Microsoft is incorporating WinUI and UWP APIs into Win32 apps, a Windows Latest report said.
WhatsApp UWP, called WhatsApp Beta, is different from WhatsApp Desktop, downloadable from the company’s website or Microsoft store, the report said. The UWP app uses the XAML language and integrates Microsoft’s WinUI principles and the web version of WhatsApp. The application also has multi-device support (up to 4), accessible even when WhatsApp is disconnected from smartphones.
According to the Windows Latest report, the new design includes an updated header, acrylic effect in the menu, support for inking, and a new settings menu. Now, it also lets users filter chats. The chat filters will let users limit the app to only display messages from contacts, non-contacts, groups or unread chats. The contact filter will show messages from user's WhatsApp contact list. Under non-contacts, messages from those not on the contact list, such as business accounts, will show up.
The report said Facebook is releasing the chat filter feature with WhatsApp Beta 2.2216.4.0, the latest version, which could be downloaded or updated from the Microsoft store. In addition to this feature, Facebook is also working on the reactions feature and archived chats feature for WhatsApp UWP.