What’s happened? WhatsApp has started testing a new feature that gives users easy access to recently shared media, links, and documents from all chats.
- This feature, aptly named Media Hub, is rolling out to some users with the latest release of WhatsApp for web and macOS.
- According to WABetaInfo, users can access this hub with a new button in the sidebar, which opens a dedicated window.
- This window lists media, links, and documents in separate tabs. Users can sort items by date or file size, and use the search function to narrow down results by sender or caption.
- As shown in the following screenshot, the Media Hub only shows recent items and prompts users to check their chats or phone for older media.
Why is this important? With the new Media Hub, users no longer have to dig through multiple chats to find recently shared photos, videos, documents, or links.
- It provides a centralized place for users to browse shared media across chats, improving usability and saving time.
- The search function also makes it easier to find media from specific senders or filter them using keywords in captions.
- By giving users quick access to recent media in one place, the hub also makes it easier to delete unnecessary files and free up storage space.
Why should I care? If you’ve ever spent ages hunting for a photo, video, or document shared on WhatsApp, the new Media Hub should make your search easier by putting all recently shared content in one place.
- The search function is particularly handy in case you remember the sender or a keyword in the caption, but still can’t locate the file.
- It also makes cleanup simple by letting you organize media by size, so you can delete random forwards that take up too much space in one go.
What’s next? WhatsApp is gradually rolling out the Media Hub, and it’s currently limited to a few users on the Mac and web clients. The company has yet to share a timeline for when the feature will be available to users on Android and iOS.
