Summary
- WhatsApp is developing a new camera feature called Instants, spotted in WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.26.45.13 on 13 November 2026.
- A lightning-bolt button at the top of the Chats tab will open a dedicated camera for photos and videos of up to 30 seconds.
- An Instant disappears as soon as the recipient has viewed it once, and WhatsApp plans to block screenshots while it is being viewed.
- Instants can only be sent to mutual contacts — people who have saved your number while you have saved theirs — and the media is end-to-end encrypted.
- The feature is still under development and is not available to beta testers yet. WhatsApp has not announced a release date, or said when it will reach iPhone users.
WhatsApp Is Building a Camera for the Moment
WhatsApp is working on a new camera feature called Instants, built around a simple idea: some photos and videos are meant to be seen once, in the moment, and then gone. The feature was spotted by WABetaInfo in WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.26.45.13, reported on 13 November 2026. It is still under development, so no beta tester can use it yet — but the pieces WhatsApp has already built say a lot about where it is heading.
Instants is not another toggle inside the regular chat camera. It is a separate camera with its own entry point and its own rules about who can receive what you send. WhatsApp is modelling it on Instagram’s Instants, a feature Meta launched on 13 May 2026 for sharing disappearing photos with Close Friends or followers you follow back. The WhatsApp version goes further in one respect: it covers videos of up to 30 seconds as well as photos, while Instagram’s version is photos only.
The timing fits a wider pattern. WhatsApp has spent the past few weeks tightening up how disappearing content works. View-once text messages — texts that vanish after being read once — started rolling out to Android beta testers in version 2.26.45.6, just a day before Instants was spotted. A native location status option was found in beta 2.26.45.8 the same week. Instants is the most ambitious of the three: a whole new camera, not a tweak to an existing one.
How Instants Works
The entry point is a lightning-bolt button that will sit at the top of the Chats tab in a future update. Tap it and the Instants camera opens. From there you take a photo or record a video, add a caption, and send it. The point is spontaneity: photos and videos you share as they happen, without editing or polishing them first.
Videos can run for up to 30 seconds — long enough for a reaction or a quick joke, but short enough that an Instant stays a moment rather than a recording. Photos get something Instagram’s version does not offer: filters. The camera offers ten of them — Original, Goof, Bulge, Nervous, Tears, Fisheye, Glitch, VHS, Fade and Prism — and WhatsApp may change the list before release. The names suggest playful, distorting effects rather than subtle colour grades, which fits the feature’s casual brief.
Once sent, an Instant can be viewed once. After the recipient has seen it, it disappears — which is what separates Instants from a normal photo or video sent in a chat, which stays in the conversation until someone deletes it. The recipient gets one look, and then the moment is gone.
The placement matters too. The lightning bolt will sit at the top of the Chats tab, where WhatsApp has already moved status updates in an earlier Android beta — one tap away from the screen most WhatsApp users open first.
Who Can Receive an Instant — and Who Cannot
Instants are not for everyone in your contacts. They go only to mutual contacts: people who have saved your number while you have saved theirs. That keeps Instants inside relationships where both sides already know each other, and makes the feature a poor tool for spam. A stranger who has your number but is not in your contacts cannot receive an Instant from you, and neither can someone you have not saved.
The media itself is end-to-end encrypted, like the rest of WhatsApp’s messages. Only you and the recipient can see an Instant; not even WhatsApp can view it. That matters because Instants are designed for unguarded moments — the kind of photo or video you would only send if you trusted the channel.
WhatsApp is also planning to block screenshots while the recipient views an Instant. Instagram’s version works the same way: friends cannot screenshot or record an Instant there. The block cannot stop someone pointing a second phone at their screen, but it does close the easiest way to keep a copy of something meant to disappear.
How Instants Differs From View Once
Anyone who has used WhatsApp for a while will ask the obvious question: is this not just View Once with a new name? The answer is no, and the difference is the camera itself. WhatsApp has offered View Once photos and videos in regular chats since 2021: pick a photo or video, tap the “1” icon, and send it. The recipient sees it once and it is gone. Instants keeps that disappearing rule but wraps it in a dedicated experience built for the moment: its own camera, its own button, filters, and a 30-second video cap.
The distinction is also about intent. View Once is a privacy setting you apply to a specific piece of media. Instants is a mode you open when you want to share something spontaneous. Instagram’s version makes that explicit: you can only shoot in the moment, with no uploads from your gallery, and an Instant cannot be viewed after 24 hours. Friends can react with emojis, reply, and send an Instant back. It is not yet known whether WhatsApp Instants will follow the same rules, but the design points the same way: shoot it now, send it now, and do not expect it to be there tomorrow.
There is also a practical difference for the sender. With View Once, the media you send can be anything already on your phone. With Instants, the photo or video is taken inside the feature, in the moment, and sent to someone you both know. That makes it closer to a disappearing story than to a disappearing attachment — which is why WhatsApp is giving it its own camera.
What Is Still Unknown
For all the detail that has leaked, the most basic questions have no answers yet. WhatsApp has not announced a release date for Instants, and because the feature is still under development, it is not open to beta testers — even the people running version 2.26.45.13 cannot see it. Development features in WhatsApp betas sometimes take weeks to reach testers and sometimes take months; some never ship at all.
It is also unclear whether WhatsApp Instants will follow Instagram’s rules on expiry and replies. On Instagram, an Instant cannot be viewed after 24 hours, and friends can react with emojis or send one back. Whether WhatsApp will copy those rules is not known. The same goes for iPhone users: the feature has only been spotted on Android so far, and WhatsApp has said nothing about iOS.
What This Means for WhatsApp Users
For most users, Instants will not change how WhatsApp works day to day — it will add a new way to share the moments that do not need to be kept. A photo of something funny you just saw, a 30-second clip of a place you are standing in, a reaction that only makes sense right now: those are the things Instants is for, and they are the things that currently either sit in a chat forever or never get sent.
The mutual-contacts rule and the screenshot block are the two details worth watching. Together, they set the tone for the feature: private, reciprocal, and hard to misuse. If WhatsApp holds those lines through to release, Instants will be one of the more carefully fenced features the app has shipped.
FAQs
Q1: What is WhatsApp Instants?
A: Instants is a new camera feature WhatsApp is developing for Android. It lets you take a photo or record a video of up to 30 seconds and send it to a mutual contact. The recipient can view it once, and it disappears afterwards. It was spotted in WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.26.45.13 on 13 November 2026.
Q2: How long can an Instant video be?
A: Up to 30 seconds. Instants covers both photos and videos of up to 30 seconds, which is longer than Instagram’s version of Instants — launched by Meta on 13 May 2026 — which supports photos only.
Q3: Who can receive an Instant on WhatsApp?
A: Only mutual contacts — people who have saved your number while you have saved theirs. Instants cannot be sent to strangers or to contacts who have not saved your number. The photos and videos are end-to-end encrypted, so only you and the recipient can see them.
Q4: Can someone take a screenshot of an Instant?
A: WhatsApp plans to block screenshots while the recipient views an Instant. Instagram’s version already works that way, with friends unable to screenshot or record an Instant. The block cannot stop someone pointing a second phone at their screen, and it does not extend to status updates.
Q5: When will WhatsApp Instants be available?
A: There is no release date yet. Instants is still under development and is not available to beta testers, even those running WhatsApp beta for Android 2.26.45.13. WhatsApp has not announced when it will roll out, or when it will reach iPhone users.
Sources: WABetaInfo (13 November 2026); iThinkDiff (13 November 2026).
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