Little things you'll love: 29 Dock updates from October

What's new

Small things across Messenger, WhatsApp, meetings and the phone app

A round of small improvements and fixes from the last days of October.

• One click on Like gives a message a thumbs up; rest on it for every reaction, and see who reacted.
• Right-click a message for Reply in Thread, React, Edit and Copy.
• Double-click (or double-tap) Messenger to jump to the next unread chat.
• WhatsApp: start a new chat by number or from a contact.
• WhatsApp: @mention people by name in a group.
• Change a chat group to a topic group and back.

A new sign-in screen and a short intro

Signing in looks new on every device: one clean logo, a calmer background and a few photos that show what Dock is for.

After your first sign-in, a short intro walks you through the basics. Later sign-ins show just one scene, and you can always skip it.

• A short intro after you sign in (the full tour once per account, then one scene).

A smoother phone app

Scrolling, swiping and opening chats on your phone are noticeably smoother, especially in busy accounts with hundreds of chats.

Opening a chat now draws the chat list once instead of three times, and Dock does less work in the background while you're not using it.

Read it on your phone, it's read on your Mac

When you read a chat on one device, it's marked as read on all your other devices right away. No more clearing the same unread badge twice.

This also works for WhatsApp chats bridged into Dock.

• Reads sync across your phone, the Mac app and the web.

Edit messages right in the composer

Choose Edit on one of your messages and it opens in the message box at the bottom, just like a new message, with your formatting and mentions intact. Press Enter to save or Esc to cancel.

Mark chats and threads as Done

Finished with a conversation? Mark it Done to clear it from your list: hover and click the check on desktop, or swipe on your phone. Done also marks it as read.

It comes back on its own when someone else writes something new. Threads have their own Done, too.

• Done for every chat and for thread rows.

Clearer reasons when something isn't sent

If a message or file can't be sent, the message box now tells you exactly why, for example that a file is too large, instead of a generic error. Sending several photos at once is also more reliable.

WhatsApp notifications, with the WhatsApp logo

If you've connected WhatsApp, Dock now notifies you about every new WhatsApp message, even when Dock isn't open. The notification shows the WhatsApp logo so you can tell it apart from Dock messages.

You can mute single WhatsApp chats or turn these notifications off for the whole account.

• Notifications for incoming WhatsApp messages (desktop, web and phone).

Home-screen widgets for iPhone

Add a Dock widget to your iPhone home screen to see your unread count, your latest unread chats and today's meetings with a Join button at a glance.

Widgets are in the TestFlight build of the iPhone app for now.

• Home-screen widgets: unread chats and today's meetings (iPhone, TestFlight).

Improved

• Search inside a topic group lists matching topics and replies, and keeps the open topic.
• Thread replies show who has read them.
• Pinch to zoom pages and photos on phones.
• Photo-only messages no longer show an empty bubble.
• A calmer live-meeting bar in the chat, with a timer and who is in the call.
• Focus rings show only when you use the keyboard.
• On iPhone the keyboard no longer shows a white band under the sign-in form.
• Smoother scrolling and swiping in the phone app.
• Less battery used while the app sits idle.
• Editing a message happens in the composer instead of a pop-up box, on desktop and phone.
• Marking a group Done also hides its threads until there's a new reply.
• "Not sent" now shows the exact reason in the composer.
• Android shows the WhatsApp icon in the status bar for these messages.

Fixed

• WhatsApp: drag and drop or paste files into a chat.
• Voice messages recorded in the phone apps play again.
• A thread reply you sent no longer comes back as a draft.
• Blank lines at the start or end of a message no longer leave an empty gap.
• Sends with attachments no longer go missing after a reconnect.