WhatsApp is giving contacts a home of their own. The Android beta now includes a dedicated Contacts tab in the navigation bar — still a work in progress, so most users won’t see it yet.
What’s in the new tab
- Online indicators: a green dot shows which contacts are currently online (those who disabled last-seen won’t appear)
- Birthday reminders: birthdays pulled automatically from your phone’s contacts, with a cake emoji and ‘Birthday today’ label
- Invites: a shortcut to invite people who aren’t on WhatsApp yet
- Search: find anyone by name, number, or username from the top bar
- Sorting: by recent activity (online first) or alphabetically
It’s a small change with an obvious goal: fewer taps between opening the app and starting a chat. The tab is live in the latest Play Store beta for enrolled testers; a stable rollout date hasn’t been announced.