Threads on WhatsApp? This is the new feature for organizing chat replies

WhatsApp is working on a feature that will allow you to organize the responses of chats in the format of structured threads, so that users can follow several conversations in the same chat in a simpler way and organized by topics.

In order to improve the experience for users, the instant messaging platform owned by Meta aims to offer a simpler way to navigate conversations that, instead of being made up of multiple single messages, will be made up of more organized responses.

To this end, WhatsApp has begun to test a message thread function for chats, with which replies will be automatically organized in thread format – similar to the structure used in other platforms such as Discord or Slack – grouping based on related conversation topics, within the same chat.

This has been shared by the specialized media WaBetaInfo, which has been able to access this new feature after the launch of the latest beta update of WhatsApp for Android (2.25.25.8).

Specifically, instead of showing the messages separately as they are sent or received, this new system identifies the topics that are being discussed in the conversation and automatically organizes the replies by grouping them into threads on those topics.

In this way, the replies related to a topic will be linked directly to the original message that started the conversation. Thus, to access these messages in the thread, all you have to do is press a New Replies button that will appear in the main message and will show the number of grouped replies.

This option allows you to keep the chat more structured, especially when it is a conversation in which several topics are being discussed at the same time, making it easier to follow up on the information. Specifically in large groups, it will prevent important messages from being lost between several responses, for example.

Likewise, the aforementioned media has also pointed out that it will be possible to add new replies to the thread, which will be automatically linked to the last message. Similarly, users will be able to reply to a thread reply message, showing it as ‘Follow-up reply’.

It’s worth mentioning that threads will only be created for messages that have been sent after activating the feature, so previous replies will not be included in these groupings. All in all, this threading feature for messages has begun to be tested with some users in the beta version, so it is not yet available.