WhatsApp
launched its story-based Status functionality
two years ago in an attempt to compete against the popularity of
temporary media-based “story” updates from Snapchat. While Snapchat
has since
bled out its Android users
through ignorance and incompetence, WhatsApp’s Status feature has
grown in popularity by riding on the sheer number of users on the
messaging platform.
However, users of WhatsApp will agree that the app’s status updates
function is not really what someone would call “useful”. If you have a
large number
of contacts on WhatsApp (who also have you in their own contact list),
you will see large lists of status updates. This list will contain
updates from
everyone — your family, friends, colleagues as well as every other
person that you rarely interact with now. People also frequently
pollute Status updates
by posting very, very frequently, thus appearing on top of the reverse
chronologically-sorted list, because reasons. While you can mute
status updates
from people you don’t really care about, WhatsApp figured they needed
to do more to retain a sense of relevancy to the Status update list.
Now, WhatsApp is reportedly testing an algorithm for Status that will
sort updates by relevance to the viewer, rather than simply listing
the poster with
the latest update on top (along with all of his unexpired updates).
According to Mashable,
the messaging platform is testing out this feature with a small subset
of iPhone users in Brazil, Spain and India; with plans to roll it out
broadly as
well as on Android in the future. This new algorithmic sorting will
order updates based on whose update is likely to be most relevant to
the viewer. This
will be determined through a variety of signals into accounts, such as
whose Statuses you frequently view and interact with, as well as who
you message
frequently.
Mashable claims that WhatsApp will retain the information it collects
to make these determinations on the user’s phones, and out of
WhatsApp’s servers.
Your preferences will be saved as a part of backups, however.
Algorithm based sorting changes have not been Facebook’s forte. The
social media platform has been criticized in almost every instance of
it trying to
change sorting preferences, whether it be on Facebook or Instagram. So
it remains to be seen how WhatsApp’s massive user base will react to
these upcoming
changes.
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https://www.xda-developers.com/whatsapp-test-sorting-status-updates-relevance-android/
--
Cheers,
Marcio
Follow me on Twitter <https://twitter.com/firirinfonfon>
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