WhatsApp already suggests stickers above the keyboard on Android based on the emojis you type, and now it’s taking that suggestion system a step further. Media suggestions are rolling out to some users on both Android and iOS with the latest versions of the app. When you open a chat, WhatsApp can now offer to send whatever you most recently added to your gallery.
There are two ways this can show up, and you’ll only get one of them. In the first, a toast pops up above the chat bar as soon as you open a conversation. It shows a thumbnail of your latest photo or video and asks if you want to send it. In the second, the camera icon in the chat bar is temporarily replaced by that thumbnail. Either way, you can ignore the suggestion and keep chatting as usual, and the toast also has a close button.
Tapping the suggestion doesn’t send anything right away. Instead, it opens the drawing editor, where you can review the photo or video and add a caption or a sticker before sending it. You can also just back out without sending anything, which should prevent accidental shares if you tap the suggestion by mistake.
WhatsApp doesn’t filter what it suggests by type or source. It simply picks the most recent item in your gallery, whether that’s a photo you took, a screenshot, an image from the web, or a video you saved from another app.
The feature turns on automatically once it reaches your account. If you’d rather not see these suggestions, go to Settings > Chats and turn off “Recent media suggestions”. The rollout is gradual, so more accounts should get it over the coming weeks, but it’s still unclear when it will be available to everyone.
