WhatsApp drops surprise design update — it's rounder and darker now

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The new design brings iOS and Android together more seamlessly

The WhatsApp logo on a screen in front of a laptop
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

WhatsApp recently released a surprise design refresh for its iOS and Android versions. The update is a bit more noticeable in light mode, as it includes a new color palette and some other changes to make the apps look more uniform across operating systems.

Spotted at 9to5 Mac, the new redesign is all about green. Notification badges, buttons, and icons are now in green.

The dark mode is also getting changes. WhatsApp claims it changed the colors to provide higher contrast and darker tones. These changes were designed to “reduce eye strain in low-light environments.” 

There are also some new animations and chat wallpapers. 

Depending on how you have updates set for your device, you should be able to see the changes now. Testing on phones we have at Tom’s Guide shows that the refreshed design has been rolled out now.

After a quiet start to the year, WhatsApp has maintained a steady flow of updates since mid-April. The company introduced Chat filters to help users find messages faster by breaking chats up into All, Unread and Groups. 

At the start of May, WhatsApp launched a feature called Communities that allows people with common interests to create groups and Announcement pages for those communities. Within that, the messaging app added Events so that Communities can plan or recreate calendar events in the app. So far, this feature has only been available to groups in a Community, but WhatsApp says event planning will roll out to everyone later this year. 

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Scott Younker
Scott Younker
West Coast Reporter

Scott Younker is the West Coast Reporter at Tom’s Guide. He covers all the lastest tech news. He’s been involved in tech since 2011 at various outlets and is on an ongoing hunt to build the easiest to use home media system. When not writing about the latest devices, you are more than welcome to discuss board games or disc golf with him. He also handles all the Connections coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game since it released.