WhatsApp is taking a leaf out of Instagram's book, with a new feature called Status. This lets you post status updates by tapping a button in the top right corner.
The tab itself has been pictured by WABetaInfo, a Twitter account which often leaks features spotted in the beta version of WhatsApp Messenger.
The thing is, WhatsApp Status has its own tab, which sits between the Chats and Calls tabs, and allows you to post text updates and photo updates. You can also see how many users the message was delivered to and how many saw the status. The good thing is you have a bit of control over the privacy, because it allows you to set who can see your status (selected contacts or all)
The new feature is a direct rip-off of Instagram Stories, Snapchat and Facebook's own Messenger Day tab. That should annoy a lot of users who don't want this feature.
The new status feature in WhatsApp is reportedly available in beta version 2.16.336. We have the same and can't find, because it is hidden. There is a root tool floating around which lets you enable this, but we haven't used it (nor do we recommend using such tools).