New WhatsApp feature users have been waiting for is finally arriving but only for Android users

A new feature that Meta has been working on for a while will now be available to WhatsApp users, but only some will be able to access it.

This is because the feature is only rolling out to Android users who are signed up to WhatsApp’s beta testing program. The addition will allow eligible users to schedule their messages instead of only being able to send them immediately.

Users will be able to queue their messages as well as photos and videos to send at a later time, with the Meta feature is expected to roll out to all users at a later date and it is thought it will become available across multiple social media platforms too.

Eligible users will now be able to schedule their text messages (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

How to use WhatsApp’s new message scheduling

If you’re one of the eligible users who now has access to the feature, the process of implementing it is simple.

First off, type out your message as usual but instead of pressing Send, hold the button down until an option appears to schedule it.

From there, you can select the time and date that you want the text to be sent, with messages able to be sent from 10 minutes in the future to two weeks from now.

If its media you want to schedule then, in a similar method, select the image or video and hold down the Send button. The only catch is that if you have multiple photos or videos to send then you’ll need to schedule them one at a time.

New WhatsApp security measures

The messaging app also recently announced new measures to help to protect the cybersecurity of its users in a blog post.

A wider Meta rollout is expected for the future (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In the announcement, WhatsApp shared three updates that people can expect once they have updated their app, including the introduction of a passkey for users to verify their identity easily including a passkey, improvements to its two step verification and phone screening.

The new passkey will allow users to log back into the app with a ‘fingerprint, face ID, or screen lock code’.

WhatsApp explains: “It’s the fastest and most secure way to verify it’s really you, with no codes or PINs. More than a billion people have already set one up, and you can now add more than one passkey to your account if you use both Android and iOS devices.”

In order to enable this feature, simply go to Settings, followed by Account and then Passkeys.