WhatsApp is getting 3 super-useful features – here’s how to get them

WhatsApp is so easy to use that it’s managed to become the messaging mainstay for most families, but it’s still possible to run into the odd quirk or frustration. Fortunately, the app is in the process of fixing three of those annoyances with some new updates.

The first two refinements are coming in an iOS and Android update that has started rolling out globally and will be “available to everyone in the coming weeks”. To get these boosts to polls and sharing photos, you’ll need to wait for new version to arrive or check your app store for the latest update.

WhatsApp’s poll improvements are particularly handy for social organizing. You can now create single-vote polls, to stop people from skewing the results with multiple votes. To do that, you’ll just need to un-toggle the ‘allow multiple answers’ option when creating a poll.

If you’ve ever had trouble finding a poll in a chat, you’ll be pleased to hear that you can also now search for polls in your chats with the new update. On the ‘Chats’ screen, just tap the search box and you’ll now see ‘Polls’ in the list of results. Lastly, you’ll also now get notifications when people vote on your polls and will be shown how many people have voted in total.

Outside Polls, the second big usability improvement is coming to the process of sharing photos or documents. Previously, forwarding photos or images to another group came with the potential issue of someone else responding before you had a chance to add some crucial context.

Fortunately, you’ll now be able to add captions to photos and videos when you forward them, and also edit existing captions that are tied to images that you’re sharing. It’s the same deal with sharing documents, which now give you the option of adding a witty or insightful caption when before you send them on.