WhatsApp has been steadily adding new features to its app to offer a more secure and richer messaging experience. It also has several upcoming features still under development, including a refined voice call interface, payments with Novi integration in the US, and multi-device support. Now, the latest WhatsApp beta for Android points to the service working on another new feature, albeit a minor one: additional drawing tools for images and videos.

WABetaInfo discovered two new drawing pencils — for a total of three — in WhatsApp's built-in image editor in the latest Android beta. The icons indicate that the new pencils could offer broader tips, allowing you to draw or scribble thicker lines on images or videos. WhatsApp currently allows users to change the pencil color but there's no option to increase/decrease its thickness. The report further adds that WhatsApp has started working on a tool for its Android app to blur images. This should make sharing screenshots and photos easier, as you can blur out the sensitive parts before sending them.

WhatsApp drawing tools

There are some additional drawing tools in development, but there's no information about them yet. There's also no clarity on when these new tools will be available to the public. Nonetheless, they should first make their way to the beta channel before being rolled out to WhatsApp's massive userbase.

Despite the raft of improvements being actively developed by WhatsApp, Telegram offers a more feature-rich experience with options like spoiler styling, emoji reactions, per-chat themes, screen sharing, and animated backgrounds. Nonetheless, the Meta-owned messaging service has roughly two billion active users worldwide and over five billion downloads on the Play Store alone. In comparison, Telegram's Android app crossed the 1 billion Play Store installs mark in October 2021, fueled by a multi-hour WhatsApp and Facebook outage and no doubt helped by Meta's questionable data privacy policies.