Dialable numbers, dates, street addresses and email addresses in your chats now get a dotted line under them. Tap the line and a short menu of actions opens, which saves you copying the details into another app.
The feature is reaching the latest WhatsApp versions on Android and iOS. If you ignore the underline, the chat behaves as before.
The menu depends on what WhatsApp recognised. A phone number offers Copy, Add to contacts and a call over your normal phone carrier, and the iOS screenshots also show a Business info entry and a note when the number is on WhatsApp. A date or time such as “tomorrow at 9:00 AM” can go to your calendar, be copied, or become a WhatsApp event. An address can be copied or opened in a map app, and an email address opens in your mail app.
The detection is reported to run on the phone itself, without sending the message to WhatsApp’s servers, so end-to-end encryption should not be affected. The same iOS screens carry a small “Was this selection useful?” prompt, which suggests WhatsApp is collecting feedback on how well the detection works.
The call option uses your SIM rather than WhatsApp’s own internet calling, so it is an ordinary voice call. The screenshots use dummy details, a +1 (313) 555-0005 number, a Menlo Park address and a [email protected] email, to show each of the four menus.
The roll-out looks gradual, so the underline may not show up on your phone yet. Updating WhatsApp from Google Play or the App Store is the only step you can take.
