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A small green circle on the profile picture will soon reveal who is currently active on WhatsApp. After the signal first appeared in the Android beta last month, Meta is now testing it in the iPhone app as well – and is incorporating two security mechanisms that are not standard for Meta apps.
WhatsApp is continuously adding new features to its iPhone app via the TestFlight beta – most recently, the option to make text messages readable only once was discovered. The latest addition is less visually noticeable, but potentially more prevalent in everyday use: a green dot indicating when a contact is currently online. This new feature was spotted by WABetaInfo, a WhatsApp-focused website, which discovered it in the latest iOS beta.
A small green circle on the profile picture
As soon as a contact is active in WhatsApp, a small green circle appears in the corner of their profile picture. If the person leaves the app, the circle disappears immediately – the indicator thus reflects their status in real time and doesn't remain as outdated information. The practical benefit is obvious: before composing a message, you can see at a glance whether the other person is even available.
The principle isn't new – similar online indicators are familiar from numerous other messaging apps. However, for WhatsApp, it's a new and significantly more visible way to demonstrate presence than the previous "last seen" indicator.
Currently only visible in one location
Currently, the green dot is still very subtle. It doesn't appear in the chat overview or within an open chat – it only becomes visible when you tap on the contact's name at the top of a chat and open their info page. In practice, the signal is therefore well hidden for now.
This is unlikely to be the end of it. Reports indicate that the indicator will gain more visibility once users become accustomed to it. In parallel, Meta is apparently working on its own contacts view, which lists all individuals who are currently online or have recently been active – a step that could transform the subtle indicator into a central overview of online presence.
Two layers of protection for privacy
It's noteworthy that the feature takes privacy into account in two ways. Firstly, it applies the existing privacy settings: users who have already hidden their online status or "last seen" status will not be shown as active via the green dot. The display therefore adheres to the rules that already apply to the account.
Secondly, the dot only appears while WhatsApp is actually open. If the app is merely running in the background, the user is not considered online. Therefore, the signal doesn't necessarily indicate that someone is constantly connected to their device – a detail that isn't always present, especially with meta-apps.
When the green dot rolls out wider
The new feature is currently enabled in the WhatsApp beta for iOS version 26.26.10.72, and even there initially only for a subset of testers. WhatsApp traditionally rolls out new features gradually, which is why the green dot doesn't appear immediately for everyone, even in the current beta. The testing phase is expected to be expanded to more beta users in the coming weeks.
It's still unclear when the feature will reach the stable version for everyone. Until then, the green dot remains a preview of how WhatsApp plans to make presence indicators more visible on iPhones. (Image: Shutterstock / Thaspol Sangsee)
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