WhatsApp continues to expand its options and features and this time it does so with a tool designed to improve users’ security and trust in the visual content they share or receive. Beta version 2.24.23.13 includes a feature that allows online reverse lookups of images sent or received in chats, making it easier to verify their origin. This tool, which is currently being tested, represents an important step in the fight against misinformation and the spread of misleading content, an increasingly visible problem in instant messaging applications.

With this new feature, WhatsApp offers users an option select any image in the conversation and search for it on the web know its origin and see if it has been previously shared or modified. Image verification is no small matter in an age where manipulated and decontextualized images are spreading at great speed. By adding this reverse search capability, WhatsApp joins other platforms that have already implemented similar features to combat visual misinformation.

Reverse image search works at the moment It is only available in beta to a small group of usersbut WhatsApp plans to expand its reach in the coming weeks. And yes, of course, as always happens in these cases, and since we are talking about a trial version, this feature could still undergo modifications before its general implementation in the official version.

Besides being useful for verifying the authenticity of images, the feature could become a useful tool for users who want to know more about certain visual content that is sent to them. By searching for an image on the web, you can get additional information to help contextualize it, such as its appearance in other sources or details of its first use. This option provides added value to WhatsApp as a communication channel at times when the reliability of information is crucial.

The arrival of this feature adds to WhatsApp’s efforts to introduce more tools that improve the user experience in many ways. Recently we have seen the arrival of lists, backgrounds and filters for video calls, some progress in the implementation of usernames… For some time now, after years of considerable inactivity, The meta has decided to step on the gas when it comes to improvement of the most used instant messaging services in the world. And the thing is, otherwise it risked being left far behind in usefulness compared to its competitors.

More information