WhatsApp now shows a small green dot beside a contact's profile picture when they are active, a feature first launched on Android last month and now in a beta for iPhone. The indicator appears only on the chat info screen—the page that opens when a user taps a contact’s name at the top of a conversation—and disappears in real time as the contact logs out. It is currently live in the iOS beta build 26.26.10.72, available to a limited set of testers via TestFlight with a broader rollout planned over the coming weeks.

The dot respects WhatsApp’s existing privacy controls. If a user has opted to hide their last‑seen and online status, the green dot will not display for that contact. The feature is not yet visible in the chat list or the conversation view, but those areas could receive updates in future releases.

For consumers, the dot offers a quick visual cue to gauge when a contact is online without opening a chat. For the industry, it adds a subtle layer of real‑time presence information that could influence how messaging apps balance user privacy with engagement tools. The timing of a stable‑release rollout remains uncertain, though Meta has not yet announced a schedule.