WhatsApp appears to be developing a feature that would allow users to upload a voice note to their Status.

Currently, status updates only allow those on WhatsApp to add an image or video - in a similar way to Instagram and Facebook's Stories. 

However, this potential new feature would represent a first for Meta's range of social media apps, allowing users to upload voice clips usually reserved only for chats.

Whether saved clips or existing notes from chats are able to be added to the statuses remains to be seen, but we expect the premise of these updates would remain the same - meaning that all of a user's contacts would be able to view them.

As shown off in the screenshot below, courtesy of WaBetaInfo, a user would be able to add a 'voice status' by selecting the icon in the bottom right corner.

WhatsApp may soon let users add voice notes to their status updates photo 2
WABetaInfo

As we see with plenty of WhatsApp tests, this feature currently appears to be in the pre-beta stage, which means that it's likely still a while away from being available to all users on iOS or Android. 

That's assuming, of course, it makes it to a full version of the app at all, as WhatsApp could decide to not include it following this initial test period.

If it does, the feature will join the many we've seen from the company recently - including the ability to mute someone on a group call, upping the maximum number of users in a group chat to 512 and improving privacy controls.