If you’re using the beta version of WhatsApp for Android, you might notice something odd about its interface: there’s two buttons to open the camera that do exactly the same thing. It looks like a mistake, even though she has her reason.
WhatsApp communities are coming to the app shortly, and the place they will occupy is the old location of the camera. Therefore, until Communities is enabled, we will see two camera buttons.
Preparing for the arrival of the communities
We’ve been hearing about WhatsApp Communities for months until the company finally announced them officially with a set of news that would arrive gradually. From this news, the communities are the only ones still waiting to arrive to all: so far, only a lucky few have this new section active.
communities will be accessible from the first WhatsApp tab, the one that today opens the app’s camera with which you can capture new statuses or photos to share with your contacts, so WhatsApp engineers had to find a new place to access the camera. The fix: a new button next to search.
How WhatsApp buttons and tabs will end up when communities are enabled (left) and how they look now, with two camera buttons (right)
As prelude to activating whatsapp, the app now shows the camera button next to search, but the camera tab is still visible. This is a chance for us to get used to the idea of the new button location until at some point the current tab disappears and turns into Communities.
Beyond the curiosity of having two camera buttons, this change tells us that the worldwide launch of the communities would be very close. The functionality seems to be ready and its place in the interface is also available. The only thing missing is someone in Meta pressing the button.
