Mixed reaction to new feature.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BANGALORE: WhatsApp, the popular messaging app, has now integrated a new feature to track whether messages are read or not.
WhatsApp had notification tick marks in the app for some time, but many believed that one tick after sending the message means the message sent and two ticks after that meant message read. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The two tick marks was just a notification that the message was delivered successfully to the other end. It was never a confirmation to whether the receiver had read it or not.
For many users this was an opportunity to lie that they didn’t receive the message or they missed it by chance; but no more.
The new update of WhatsApp brings to it a blue tick notification that shows whether or not the other person actually read the message. This has opened up a possibility to nag your WhatsApp friends for failing to reply back for a message that they saw.
So the new update has both pros and cons as the sender can immediately know whether his/her WhatsApp friend read the message or not, but on the other hand the same person can get offended if the guy on the other side fails to respond to the message despite viewing it.
The new feature of WhatsApp, popularly known as “double blue tick”, seems to have cast a shadow over some of the avid WhatsApp users.
Here are some twitter reactions of some WhatsApp users:
Aliff Hazwan says “Whatsapp is testing the blue tick. To show that the recipient read your message. Goodbye relationship”
Tim ‘Mac’ Metternich posted: “Hard times incoming for all #WhatsApp users. Hearts will be broken. Relationships will end. People may die.”
OVERGROWN DICKWAD wrote: “Yo why are you ignoring me?” “Oh im sorry i just checked whatsapp” “Lol the ticks turned blue 5 hours ago” “Oh…”