With recent privacy issues induced by Facebook’s WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram are enjoying their time in the spotlight. Signal’s privacy focus specifically attracted many users who decided to stop using WhatsApp, with the app experiencing unprecedented growth and leading the global app stops worldwide. But many of these newly acquired users quickly noticed Signal’s limited set of features, forcing the app’s developers to hurry up and try to plug some holes to keep everyone stuck. Some new features have been promised last week, and they are now in the latest beta version of the app.
Custom wallpapers
Signaling chats used to change the background color according to the application theme: solid white for the light theme, solid black for the dark theme. With the new beta, support for suitable wallpapers has been added and, like WhatsApp, they can be configured via chat.
You will find the option for the entire application at Settings> Appearance> Chat Wallpaper, but you can also do this for each conversation by tapping the person’s name in the top bar and looking Chat Wallpaper there is.
Several predefined wallpapers are available to choose from, including 12 solid colors and 9 gradients. You can also choose a local photo from your phone’s storage. A preview allows you to see what the wallpaper looks like in a chat.
After selecting the wallpaper, it will be applied to all conversations or the specific one you chose. If you have activated the setting, it will also darken slightly when the phone switches to dark mode.
Animated Stickers
Signal does not offer many sticker packs by default, but there is a new one called “Day by Day” that is animated. It is installed by default, so you don’t have to look for it, and contains 24 animated stickers with many emotions or general activities (rain, waking up, kissing, listening to music, thumbs up and more). As far as I can tell, the animation does not time out and will loop indefinitely.
Text status / About
The signal is also adding a simple On section for user profiles, a feature that has been available on WhatsApp and Telegram (and several other messengers) for years. You can choose an emoji and type a short synopsis about yourself that your contacts will see when they open your profile. You can save several of them and easily switch between them, essentially using them as improvised statuses, if you wish.
These features are available in Signal beta v5.3.1, which is slowly being implemented in the Play Store. You can get it by entering the official beta app and waiting for it to arrive on your device, or you can speed up the process and get it manually from APK Mirror.
