WhatsApp Adds a New Secret Font ‘FixedSys’; New File sharing formats, 2-Step Authentication & More Coming Soon

By Abhishek Joshi On Jul 21, 2016

The last development from WhatsApp came in the form of a desktop app for Windows and Mac users, and since then we have been hearing about possible features the company could introduce but nothing concrete has popped up.

However, WhatsApp has actually added a new ‘secret font’ named ‘FixedSys’ that users can not explicitly change, but use it every now and then with the help of a keyboard symbol. The new font is available on the latest WhatsApp build on iOS and Android OS both.

This is the only new font introduced by the company for now, and while it sounds exciting, it is not very practical to use. To write in that font, users have to put “` in the beginning of the word or the sentence and at the end of the sentence. That is not an apostrophe, it is a sign next to the ~ sign on the keyboard, and has to be used thrice before and after the statement.

For example, to type ‘I like trak.in’ in FixedSys font, I’ll write, “`I like trak.in“` and the font will change immediately. If the font is not changing in your case, you do not have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on your smartphone.

WhatsApp expanding file sharing options, emojis and authentication steps

As if WhatsApp already wasn’t secure enough to use, the company is looking to add more than one level of authentication in its application. The company will be bringing a six-digit code set by the user that will have to be entered to backup chats and calls. However, the complete use of this feature is still unknown.

The California-based company is also going to introduce 72 new emojis submitted by Unicode Consortium recently. Some emojis are already available for iOS, while Android users will have to wait a little to use them. Some specific emojis are ones with bib, black heart and a selfie.

The most important update, however, has to be the file sharing on WhatsApp. The company is looking to introduce all file sharing on the app, including music and MP3 files along with public invitation links and QR codes. It is still unclear if users will be able to share links from third-party music streaming apps.

There are a lot of features desired from the chat application that are still under development but we can hope to see them this year. Video calling is still the biggest update the company can bring, but hasn’t announced any plans of releasing it.