Signal has enjoyed an unexpected surge among users following WhatsApp’s recent privacy bug. In an effort to capitalize on its growing popularity, Signal has begun testing features that make the messaging platform feel a little friendlier.
Earlier this month, Signal announced a handful of new features that will come to the platform, including chat backgrounds and animated stickers. As promised, these two features are now available in the beta version of the app, making it feel more like WhatsApp than ever before.
Android Police got their hands on both new features, and share screenshots of what chat backgrounds look like. You can change your chat paper to Signal by going to Settings> Appearance> Chat paper. You can also change the background of an individual chat by tapping on the person’s name in the top bar and searching for the chat paper option.
There are a total of 21 chat wallpapers to choose from, including 12 solid colors and 9 gradient colors. Android Police said that you can also choose a photo from the camera’s role for extra personalization. Previously, Signal displayed only white and black backgrounds, depending on whether the dark mode is activated on your device.
Android Police also offers a quick preview of Signal’s new animated stickers – something the platform has struggled with in the past. There’s a new day-by-day sticker package containing 24 animated stickers to liven up your conversation. The art is by Miguel Angel Camprubí.
Finally, Signal seems to be adding a simple About section for user profiles. Users have the opportunity to choose an emoji and also add a brief description of themselves. It’s a simple way to share your personality before you even have a conversation. Apparently, signal users can save a number of blurbs and switch directly between them, which in effect makes them status updates.
If you use iOS, Signal said it also plans to add media download settings automatically and profile photos in full screen, the latter of which is already available on Android.
These new additions to Signal appear to be in the beta version of the app for now. Hopefully the test runs smoothly so that it can be added to the stable build. Once it’s done, let us know for sure.