New WhatsApp beta brings the camera media bar back after a previous beta removed it

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WhatsApp logo
WhatsApp logo (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / iMore)

What you need to know

  • A new WhatsApp beta brings the camera media bar back.
  • A previous beta removed the media bar for reasons unknown.

Good news! A new WhatsApp beta has brought the camera media bar back after a previous beta inexplicably removed it.

WhatsApp's version 22.4.0.72 beta removed the media bar that allowed people quick access to photos and videos when trying to send them to friends and family. However, as WABetaInfo reports, it now looks like the latest beta release undoes that decision after people complained that it would make it more difficult and cumbersome to share content.

Whatsapp Camera Beta Media Bar

Whatsapp Camera Beta Media Bar (Image credit: WABetaInfo)

As you can see in this screenshot, WhatsApp is finally restoring the scrollable media bar. Some users complained after the previous update where WhatsApp removed the scrollable media bar because more actions were needed to send images and videos, but WhatsApp has reverted the changes.The camera media bar is available again to certain iOS beta testers, so be sure to use the latest WhatsApp beta version by updating it from TestFlight.

This would all suggest that the version of WhatsApp that is available in the App Store will never see a release that does away with the camera media bar and that's good news indeed!

WhatsApp is one of the best iPhone apps for people who need to send messages and media to people on Android devices and the previous beta made that more difficult than it needed to be. It's good to see that WhatsApp seems to have listened to feedback and gone back to an interface that works.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.