WhatsApp is finally testing something Facebook Messenger users have had for years: a simple green dot that tells you when someone is actually online right now, not just when they were "last seen." The feature has moved from Android beta testing to iOS.
WABetaInfo, which tracks WhatsApp's beta development closely, spotted the feature in iOS beta version 26.26.10.72, available through TestFlight and to a limited number of standard App Store beta testers. The Android version of this same feature began testing about a month earlier.
How It Actually Works
The implementation is straightforward. A small green circle appears at the bottom-right corner of a contact's profile photo, but only within the "Contact info" screen, the page you reach by tapping a contact's name or photo at the top of a conversation. It updates live: the moment someone opens WhatsApp, the dot appears; the moment they close the app or go offline, it disappears.
This replaces the plain text "Online" label that previously showed up in that same screen. It's a small visual change, but a meaningfully different kind of signal than what WhatsApp has offered before. The app has shown "last seen" timestamps for years, telling you roughly when someone was last active. A live green dot tells you they're active right now, in this exact moment, which changes how people might use the information when deciding whether to send a message expecting a quick reply.
Where the Feature Currently Falls Short
Right now, the green dot only shows up in one specific screen, the Contact info page, which most people rarely open before sending a message. It doesn't appear in the main chat list or inside an actual conversation, which is arguably where it would be most useful, glancing at your chat list to see who's currently active before deciding who to message. Multiple outlets tracking this beta have flagged the same limitation, and it's a reasonable expectation that WhatsApp expands the indicator's placement before any stable public release.
Privacy Still Applies
The green dot follows WhatsApp's existing privacy framework rather than introducing a new, separate visibility setting. If you've already chosen to hide your last seen and online status from specific contacts or everyone, the green dot simply won't show up for those people either. There's no separate opt-out required, it inherits the same rule set users are already familiar with.
What Might Be Coming Next
One detail worth watching: this feature may be laying groundwork for a broader "Contacts hub" reportedly in development, which would show online and recently active contacts gathered in one place rather than requiring you to check each contact individually. If that interface does arrive, the green dot in Contact info would likely serve as the same visual language carried over into that new hub.
Techoper's Take
This is a genuinely simple feature, but it's been conspicuously absent from WhatsApp for a long time given how standard it's become across Messenger, Instagram, and even iMessage's typing indicators. The current placement inside a screen most people never open feels like an intentionally cautious first rollout rather than the finished product, likely a way for WhatsApp to test the underlying real-time presence system quietly before deciding how visible to make it. Whether this ends up being a welcome convenience or an unwelcome erosion of the "quiet unavailability" WhatsApp has always allowed will probably come down to how prominently it eventually gets placed, and whether people start feeling social pressure to respond the instant that green dot appears next to their name.
