Summary
- Building on its existing event functionality for groups and Communities, WhatsApp is now bringing event creation and management to individual conversations.
- The feature, spotted in the latest WhatsApp beta, will likely work similarly to group events, accessible via the attachment menu and displaying upcoming events within the chat and contact info.
- Given WhatsApp’s existing infrastructure for event scheduling, the rollout to individual chats on the stable channel is anticipated in the near future.
WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging application with over 2 billion monthly active users wants to take on Google Calendar’s role, and not just for group chats.
First spotted all the way back in October 2023, the messaging giant has long been working on a centralized event scheduling feature for group chats, and subsequently for Communities too. The feature finally landed last summer, allowing users to create and manage events directly within the app, complete with details like the event’s name, a description, date and time, a location (or a call link if the event is virtual).
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Realizing that the event scheduling could also be useful for individual interactions, the Meta-owned messaging giant finally seems to be expanding the feature to one-on-one chats. The development was spotted in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android v2.25.3.6, as highlighted by WABetaInfo.
From the looks of it, event creation within one-on-one conversations will work exactly as it does on group chats — the creation process will be housed in the paperclip/attachment menu, while upcoming events will be highlighted within the chat and in a dedicated ‘Events’ section on the contact information screen.
The screenshots below highlight what the event creation procedure looks like in group chats, which should translate seamlessly for individual chats whenever the feature lands.
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Additionally, similar to events on Google Calendar, recipients of the event invite will have the option to accept or decline it — especially useful for businesses that operate on an appointment basis. The functionality is still in beta, but considering that WhatsApp already has tech infrastructure for event scheduling implemented across two other chat categories, it shouldn’t be long until users get to access events for one-on-one conversations on the app’s stable channel.
This comes soon after WhatsApp began rolling out new icons for its paperclip-attachment sheet.
