I’m sure you saw the double arrow icon in WhatsAppbecause like the double blue check mark (which is totally different), it appears very frequently in a conversation on an Android mobile.
Now though, What does this double arrow icon mean? Is this related to messages being forwarded multiple times or is it something different? The answers, below.
The double arrow icon is everywhere
For some time now, WhatsApp chats on Android have been filled with an icon that shows a double arrow inside a circle. It doesn’t appear in normal text messages, but it appears in most other things we send in a chat.
For example, we will find this double arrow after sending a sticker of our avatar or when you send us photos, videos, links with a previewlocations or contacts.
There is only one exception: messages that have been forwarded multiple times. These do not have a double arrow but, instead, a magnifying glass icon which searches for the text of the message on Google.
The double arrow icon may look familiar because it’s the one that appears next to the text in Message forwarded or forwarded multiple times, although in this case it means nothing of the sort. Additionally, the double arrow that we frequently see on WhatsApp is not an indication of the status of the message, but a button.
The double arrow that appears next to photos, links and the like is nothing more than a button to quickly resend the message, without having to select it first. In other words, it’s simply a shortcut.
If you click the arrow button next to a message, the box appears Send to…with which you canSend the message to other discussions, groups or post it as status. The trick is that this is done with just one touch, without having to select the message first.
Actually, if you want to forward multiple messages It will be easier for you to select them all (with a long press on one of them to activate the selection mode) and you will then see that the double arrow icon also appears in the top bar of WhatsApp.
In summary, the circle with the double arrow is a button to quickly forward a message. Personally, it seems a bit far-fetched to me that WhatsApp includes the button in most multimedia messages instead of hiding it behind a gesture, like reply, but Meta engineers seem to think otherwise.
In Xataka Android | WhatsApp is becoming the super app Elon Musk wanted and we didn’t even realize it