WhatsApp is introducing a new feature designed to simplify daily activities. This functionality can automatically detect various types of shared data in conversations, such as phone numbers, dates, times, addresses, and emails, offering direct shortcuts to interact with this information without leaving the application itself.
This feature, called 'message text actions,' is being rolled out progressively to users on Android and iPhone devices. The discovery of this novelty was made by the specialized portal WABetaInfo, analyzing recent versions of the app.
When the app's system recognizes compatible data, it inserts a dotted underline beneath the corresponding segment. By clicking on this highlighted text, the user accesses a menu containing specific options related to the identified content.
The functionality works for both received and sent messages. Furthermore, the menu will display the recognized text segment, allowing the user to verify if WhatsApp identified the information correctly. If the user chooses not to use any of the suggestions, they can simply ignore the highlight and continue the conversation normally.
The presented options vary depending on the type of content detected. Although some of these actions already existed in previous versions of WhatsApp, the main change lies in consolidating them into a contextual menu, which facilitates access to the available functionalities.
Regarding security and privacy, WABetaInfo highlighted that the recognition of this text occurs entirely on the device, using regular expressions—patterns employed to identify specific data formats. Consequently, message content and action suggestions are not transmitted to WhatsApp servers, ensuring that the new function does not affect the end-to-end encryption of conversations.
The application also offers the possibility of rating the suggestions. After selecting an action, the user can indicate whether it was useful or not. It is possible to provide feedback if the identification is incorrect or the option is considered unnecessary. According to WABetaInfo, this rating sends only a signal to the platform, without exposing the message content.
Text actions are being released gradually to certain users of the latest versions of WhatsApp, for both Android and iOS. This implies that not everyone will immediately see the dotted underlines, even after updating the software. WABetaInfo reports that the rollout should reach more accounts in the coming weeks, but WhatsApp has not yet announced a definitive date for making the feature available to all users.


