WhatsApp is expanding one of its most requested contact status features to iPhone users. A green dot that shows when a contact is actively online — already in testing on Android — is now being tested on iOS via beta version 26.26.10.72. WABetaInfo spotted it first, and the implementation is simple enough to explain in one sentence: a small green circle appears at the bottom-right of a contact's profile photo when they're currently active, and disappears when they're not.
Summary
- WhatsApp is testing a real-time green dot online indicator on iOS beta 26.26.10.72, following its earlier Android beta rollout last month.
- The green dot appears exclusively on the "Contact info" screen for now — opened by tapping a contact's photo inside a chat.
- It updates in real time: visible when the contact is online, gone the moment they go offline.
- Existing privacy settings apply — users who've hidden their last seen and online status won't show the green dot to others.
- No stable release date has been announced; the feature remains available only to select beta users on both platforms.
Simple Feature, Real Utility
WhatsApp has shown last seen timestamps for years. The online indicator is a more immediate version of the same idea — instead of "last seen 2 minutes ago," you get a live signal that someone is in the app right now. It's the kind of feature Instagram and iMessage have offered for a while, and WhatsApp users have been asking for it.
The current implementation has one obvious limitation: the green dot only appears in the Contact info screen, not in the main chat list or the Chats tab where you'd naturally glance before sending a message. That's where it would actually be useful. WABetaInfo flagged the same point — and it's fair to assume WhatsApp will expand the placement before stable release, since the chat list is the logical home for this kind of real-time status signal.
Showing the green dot only in the Contact info screen is the cautious rollout approach — WhatsApp almost certainly knows the chat list is where it needs to live before this becomes genuinely useful.
Privacy Rules Still Apply
The green dot inherits WhatsApp's existing last seen and online privacy settings. If a contact has set their online status to hidden — a popular choice for people who don't want to be seen as available — the green dot won't appear for them regardless of whether they're actually online. That's the right call. Adding a live presence indicator and then bypassing existing privacy preferences would have been a mess.
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WhatsApp has been busy with feature rollouts recently — username reservations, view-once text messages, and incognito chats with Meta AI have all been in various stages of testing. The green dot fits into that pattern: small, practical additions that close the gap between WhatsApp and more modern messaging platforms without changing what makes WhatsApp WhatsApp.
No stable release timeline has been announced. If Android beta testing completes without major issues, expect the feature to roll out broadly on both platforms together.
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