WhatsApp finally rolls out dark mode in beta; is it an effort to make up for security breaches?

These are bleak times for WhatsApp, but the Facebook-owned messaging platform is seemingly going ahead with the rollout of a dark theme. Last week, WhatsApp was forced to issue an acknowledgment that the accounts of some human rights lawyers, journalists, and opposition politicians were targeted by hackers using the Pegasus spyware tool.
It issued a clarification that the security breach was quickly resolved through a software patch. This could be followed by a cosmetic upgrade that has long been in the works: dark mode.

Think Facebook Messenger or Instagram; other apps from the Facebook stable have already got dark themes. A report by the tech website WABetaInfo has spotted the dark theme in the Android beta version 2.19.311, and says that it could be made available to beta users in the near future.

Beta users of Android are those who test upcoming versions of apps, as opposed to the stable software products that are put up on the app store. However, in the case of WhatsApp, access to the beta version appears to be closed.

The dark theme on the WhatsApp beta is still under development, but this has not prevented users with early access from posting screenshots. The new theme also features dark bubbles in chats, and the ability to play Netflix trailers directly in a chat window without opening the Netflix app separately. The WABetaInfo report adds that if a Netflix-compatible link is shared in a chat, WhatsApp will show a large thumbnail with an embedded play icon.

By clicking on the video link, users can enable playback with the app in the picture-in-picture mode. This mode of playback is already supported for video links from platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.