WhatsApp update brings tiny change to design – prompting widespread outrage

Two letters have led to ire from users

(AFP via Getty Images)

A tiny change on WhatsApp has led to outrage among the app’s users.

Inside conversations on the app, users can see information about the status of the person they are talking to. It will indicate when they are “online”, or if they are “typing...”.

Until recently, those messages did not include a capital letter. But in recent days, some users have found that the first letters of those messages have been swapped for capitals.

The change appears to have happened on both Android and iOS, though it does not appear to have happened to everyone using the app, and does not yet appear to have rolled out to the web and desktop versions. Some found that it appeared to have changed on one device but not on others.

WhatsApp often rolls out changes – both large and small – over a matter of weeks, and so the new indicator may come to other users soon.

Many appeared outrage by the change. Most were not upset by the new look itself, but by the fact it had changed at all.

One post on X/Twitter, which has since been reshared more than 1,600 times, appeared to channel the outrage.

“WhatsApp changing the online status from online to Online has sent me west…….why upset me like this,” it read.

WhatsApp did not immediately respond to questions about the change.

Other apps are not consistent on whether the word should be capitalised or not. On Meta’s other major chat platform Facebook Messenger, for instance, the online indicator is capitalised; while on rival Telegram, it is not.