WhatsApp is preparing to make one of mobile’s more divisive features available to every link in your chats. References found in a recent iOS TestFlight build suggest the app is building a full in-app browser for iPhone. Users would be able to open any link shared in a conversation without leaving WhatsApp and switching to Safari or another default browser.
This would expand a much narrower test. WhatsApp had already been trying out an in-app view for certain secured business websites, with an option in the menu to open the page in the user’s regular browser. The new version, first spotted by the feature tracker WABetaInfo, would apply that approach to every link, not just business pages.
Importantly, it appears to be optional. Screenshots of the work-in-progress feature show a new In-app browser setting under Chats, where users choose whether links open inside WhatsApp or in their default browser. When it is first enabled, an explanation sheet describes the change, and users can switch back at any time. The same settings area includes controls to clear cookies, cache and other browsing data stored by the built-in browser.
That last detail matters because in-app browsers have a mixed reputation. In 2022, security researcher Felix Krause showed that Instagram and Facebook’s in-app browsers injected JavaScript into the pages users visited, which raised concerns about how much activity Meta could observe. Meta said the code served functions such as respecting users’ tracking preferences, but the episode left many privacy-conscious users distrustful of browsers built into social apps.
WABetaInfo reports that WhatsApp cannot see the links people share or which ones they open, which fits the service’s end-to-end encryption claims for message content. What remains unclear is how the browser handles the pages themselves once loaded: whether any scripts are injected, what telemetry is collected, and how browsing data stored inside WhatsApp is managed. Those are the questions that will decide whether the feature is a convenience or a liability.
There is a practical argument for it. Staying in a conversation while checking a link is quicker than switching apps, and many messaging and social apps already work this way. Making it opt-in instead of the default is also more respectful than the approach often taken elsewhere.
There is no timeline yet. The feature has not reached WhatsApp’s beta testers, and code found in TestFlight builds does not always ship. If it launches, the most important detail will not be the toggle itself but the setting it uses by default.
