WhatsApp has been working on a quick reaction feature for Status updates for the past few months, and it seems the feature’s public rollout is closer since the Meta-owned platform has started testing it on Android with beta version 2.24.17.21 of the app.
Users will see a heart-shaped “Like” button next to the “Reply” text box when viewing a Status, allowing them to Like that Status update. And when someone reacts to your Status with a Like, you will see that in the Status viewers’ list, similar to Instagram Stories. WhatsApp will also let users decide whether or not to get notifications for these Like reactions.
Like reactions for WhatsApp Status updates
Another feature WhatsApp is developing focuses on user security and privacy. It will let users block messages from unknown accounts. With this feature turned on, WhatsApp will automatically block messages from unknown accounts if they exceed a certain volume.
WhatsApp working on unknown account message blocking feature
This feature is currently under development and isn’t available even to beta users, so it’s unclear how long it will take WhatsApp to release it publicly.
Source 1, Source 2