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WhatsApp introduced abottom navigation barto its Android app roughly a year ago to align with the Material Design guidelines. However, this meant that the previous swipeable tabs experience had to go away, although WhatsApp appeared to have achange of heart in June, with swipeable tabs making an appearance in a beta. It didn’t take long for thefeature to disappear, however, only to make acomeback again in September. WhatsApp then removed support for swipe gestures in subsequent updates, but it looks like the Meta-owned chat app hasn’t fully given up on it yet, with the latest beta version marking the reappearance of the swipeable navigation bar.
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The discovery was made byWABetaInfo, who claim this change was enabled with version 2.24.7.2 of WhatsApp beta for Android. The site also said WhatsApp may have flicked the switch for older beta versions as well, and we are seeing it on many of our devices at Android Police. The phones demonstrating the change didn’t need an app update before the new UI showed up, indicative of a server-side change as predicted. Interestingly, we are also noticing this change in linked Android devices.
Swipe to switch between tabs(left); An alert about the change on a linked smartphone(right)
Swiping between tabs undoubtedly makes life easier for frequent users of the app as they don’t have to tap each tab individually. But considering theAndroid navigation bar design guidelines, we won’t be surprised if WhatsApp developers suddenly decide to pull the plug on this again in the near future. Availability on linked smartphones is a ray of hope the change is here to stay, though.
WhatsApp is also working on a new search bar
WhatsApp’s experimentation with design elements continues. The app is also testing a prominent search bar at the top of the chat list. Another WABetaInforeportover the weekend covered this in some detail, with the search bar supposedly appearing with the olderv2.24.7.1release of WhatsApp beta for Android.
As you may see above, this search bar will appear only within the chat list. Moreover, the search icon at the top of the screen is removed, a logical move to avoid redundancy. But we’re not sure if this will be the final implementation of the search bar, with WABetaInfo expecting “additional alterations” before it’s ready to roll out.
UPDATE: 2025-08-13 06:53 EST BY CHANDRAVEER MATHUR
Swipeable tabs rolling out widely in beta
WhatsApp recently flicked a server-side switch to give many more beta testers a taste of the bottom-aligned navigation bar with sideways swipe support, and we have updated our coverage with visuals from our devices.
