WhatsApp now lets you add short video messages to chats

By Trevor Mogg July 27, 2023

You can now send short video messages in a WhatsApp chat, Meta announced on Thursday.

A video message can last for up to 60 seconds long and is protected with end-to-end encryption.

“Video messages are a real-time way to respond to chats with whatever you want to say and show in 60 seconds,” Meta said in a post announcing the new feature. “We think these will be a fun way to share moments with all the emotion that comes from video, whether it’s wishing someone a happy birthday, laughing at a joke, or bringing good news.”

The company notes that the new feature builds on the popular voice message feature that people sometimes use in their chats.

How to send a video message on WhatsApp

To send a video message on WhatsApp, switch to video mode and then hold to record the video. To go hands-free, simply lock and record the video by swiping up.

If you receive a video message in a WhatsApp chat, it’ll automatically play on mute until you tap the display to start the audio.

Meta said that the video message feature has already started to roll out and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks, so be patient if you’re not seeing it yet.

The latest upgrade comes just a couple of months after WhatsApp added another feature allowing users to edit messages. The much-desired feature means you can quickly correct an annoying typo or rephrase something to make it read better, though it has to be done within 15 minutes of hitting the send button.

Before that, the only way to edit a WhatsApp message was by going through the somewhat laborious process of deleting it before repeating the compose and send process.

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Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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Call Annie ChatGPT app on an iPhone.

Showing up to a videoconference as your digital avatar can be quite fun. Apple lets you do just that with Memojis during FaceTime. If you want something more ambitious on a different platform, Avatarify will turn into Albert Einstien or Mona Lisa for Zoom calls. But what if you could bring an AI conversation to life? Say, by talking to ChatGPT as if OpenAI’s AI was a CGI person talking to you on a video call?
Well, that’s now possible. Call Annie is an app that turns ChatGPT into Annie, a talking female avatar that doesn’t look like a glitchy visual mess. Developed by Animato.Ai, the app is currently exclusive to iOS 16, but you can also use it on macOS 13 machines with an M-series processor inside.

A ChatGPT-powered video call in action
https://twitter.com/frantzfries/status/1651316031762071553?s=20
Another limitation is that you need at least the iPhone 12 or a later model to start a video call with Annie because the real-time conversion of linguistic prompts into visual cues draws power from Apple’s Neural Engine.
The app’s makers claim that talking to Annie “face-to-face in real time time feels more natural and faster than typing and reading text.” So far, the sample videos we have seen on social media, like the one above, show a fairly convincing video call interface.
Right now, Annie appears to be pretty good at holding a fluent conversation, even though the voice sounds robotic, and the phrase pausing could also use some work. The answers, however, are typical of the answers you would get while texting back-and-forth with ChatGPT. And given enough time and improved voice training, Call Annie interactions can become a lot more natural-sounding.
It all brings back memories of the sci-fi flick Her, in which Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with one such AI. One user asked on Reddit whether Annie can have a “memory” system that will turn it into a smarter “friend,” to which the app developers replied with “soon.”
https://twitter.com/jakedahn/status/1651285054591750144
This is only the beginning for Annie
Users who have tried the app note that it occasionally flubs the pronunciation of words, but once corrected, it also learns right away. One user described this experience as “scary stuff.”Another issue it has is with pronouncing words in languages other than English, something that the developers are trying to fix.
Thanks to its ChatGPT smarts, the app’s developers say it can help you with everything from learning and web searches to serving as a tour guide or even a virtual companion. We don’t know if it’s as smart as other virtual partner apps like Replika, but considering the fact that Annie is based on ChatGPT (and its vast data training model), you can have a significantly deeper and fact-driven conversation with Annie.
Animato’s App Store description notes that the AI keeps all conversations “confidential” but hasn’t specified what kind of security measures have been put in place and whether it uses the user conversations for training and refining Annie’s systems.

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If you’re looking for one of the best phones and one of the best phone deals available the Google Pixel 8 should be at the top of your list of phones to check out. It rivals many of the Samsung Galaxy deals and iPhone deals currently going on, and it’s one of the more underrated phones among the heavy hitters. We’ve rounded up all of the best Google Pixel 8 deals available right now to make the shopping process a little more convenient. We found some impressive savings at several different retailers, and we even tracked down some ways to get the Google Pixel 8 for free. Read onward for all of those details, and if you prefer to shop for some savings among comparable phones check out all of the Samsung Galaxy S24 deals, Samsung Galaxy S23 deals, iPhone 15 deals, and iPhone 14 deals taking place right now.
Today's best Google Pixel 8 deals
There are some great Google Pixel 8 deals around including direct discounts when you buy the phone unlocked and trade-in deals for anyone who wants to commit to a specific cell phone provider. With such versatility, there should be something for everyone here. Take a look below to find the best Google Pixel 8 deal for your situation.

Google: when joining Google Fi Unlimited.
Amazon: , which is $129 less than a new model.
Verizon: when you purchase a Google Pixel 8.
T-Mobile: with new line on Go5G Plus or Go5G Next (or other sign-up options).