Finally: WhatsApp adds the button we’ve all been waiting for

The innovation was revealed in the beta version 26.31.10.70 of WhatsApp for the iPhone operating system. According to the report, the company is developing a new search button that will appear at the bottom of the conversation screen and will allow entering the search mode with one click, without first going to the contact or group information screen.

Today, those who wish to search for a message within a conversation on an iPhone have to perform several steps. First, click on the name of the contact or the group at the top of the screen, enter the call details screen, select the search option and only then actually return to the chat window in a mode that allows you to type a search word and find old messages.

It is indeed an action that lasts a few seconds, but in daily use, especially for those who have long conversations or use WhatsApp for work, family and active groups, switching between screens becomes cumbersome. Users who are trying to remember who sent an address, phone number, photo, meeting time or a certain sentence are now forced to leave the conversation for a moment to start searching it.

There is already a faster option on the iPad. Users can open the options menu and select search without leaving the call, but on the iPhone this option does not exist today in the same way. The new button is actually designed to narrow the gap and make searching on the iPhone a more direct operation.

WhatsApp chose not to place the new button permanently at the bottom of the screen. It is expected to appear only when the user scrolls up within the conversation, i.e. returns to old messages. At this moment, the search button will be displayed at the bottom of the screen, near where buttons related to conversation navigation currently appear.

This behavior is reminiscent of the button that allows you to quickly return to the last message in a conversation after scrolling back. The idea is to present the search option at the exact moment when the user is most likely to need it. After returning to the bottom of the conversation and the newest messages, the button will likely disappear again.

Clicking on it will not create a new search engine. According to the report, the button will activate the same search mode that already exists today in WhatsApp. The change is in the way you get to it: instead of leaving the conversation, opening the contact or group information and clicking search, the user will be able to perform the action directly from within the chat.

The innovation may be particularly noticeable in groups and conversations where thousands of messages have accumulated. Manually scrolling backwards trying to find a particular piece of information can be slow and inefficient, and a search option that appears while scrolling can make the transition from manual search to searching by word or phrase much faster.

This is also a change that corresponds to WhatsApp’s trend to reduce the number of actions needed to perform common tasks within the application. Instead of sending the user to separate settings and information screens, the company brings useful actions directly to where the user is at that moment.

However, those who now open WhatsApp on the iPhone are not expected to see the new button yet. According to the report, the option is in the development phase and has not even been activated for the beta testers. The fact that the component already appears in the beta version indicates that the company is working on it, but it can still change its design, its location or the way it works before the launch.

WhatsApp also did not give a date for the distribution of the innovation to all users at this stage. Once the development is complete, it is likely that the option will be activated first among a limited group of beta users and only after a testing period will be gradually expanded to the regular version of the application.