Overview
- WhatsApp’s festive drop includes a 2026 sticker pack, fireworks/confetti/star effects on video calls, animated confetti reactions, and—for the first time—animated stickers in Status with a special 2026 layout.
- The features were announced on December 29 and are rolling out now through the holiday period to compatible Android and iOS versions.
- WhatsApp highlights planning tools such as in-chat events with RSVPs, pinned items, polls, live location, and voice or video notes to coordinate New Year gatherings.
- The company notes typical daily activity exceeds 100 billion messages and about 2 billion calls, with the 24-hour New Year window consistently setting its annual peak.
- India’s CERT-In issued a high-severity ‘GhostPairing’ advisory on a device-linking vulnerability that could enable account takeover without a password, OTP, or SIM swap, urging users to avoid unsolicited verification links or pages.