WhatsApp has rolled out a range of New Year 2026–themed features as it gears up for its busiest day of the year. The platform traditionally sees a massive spike in activity during the New Year period, with users across different countries and time zones exchanging messages, making calls, and sharing celebrations with friends and family.
According to WhatsApp, the service handles more than 100 billion messages and close to 2 billion calls on a typical day. During the 24-hour New Year window, these numbers climb even higher as people rely on personal chats, group conversations, voice calls, and video calls to send greetings and coordinate festivities.
New Year 2026 features on WhatsApp
To celebrate the arrival of 2026, WhatsApp has introduced several limited-time features that will be available throughout the holiday period:
- 2026 sticker pack: A new set of stickers themed around the New Year is now available, allowing users to send festive greetings in chats.
- Video call effects: Users can add visual effects such as fireworks, confetti, and star animations to video calls by tapping the effects icon during a call.
- Animated confetti reactions: Special animated effects appear when users react to messages using the confetti emoji.
- Animated stickers in Status: WhatsApp is introducing animated stickers in Status updates for the first time, including a special 2026 layout featuring an animated sticker.
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Tools for planning New Year celebrations
Alongside the festive additions, WhatsApp has also highlighted several existing features that can help users plan New Year celebrations within group chats:
- Events with pinning: Users can create events, pin them in group chats, gather RSVPs, and share updates in one place.
- Polls: Polls make it easy to decide on food, drinks, venues, or activities.
- Live location sharing: This feature helps participants find the venue and confirm that everyone has arrived safely.
- Voice and video notes: Users can share voice messages or short video notes to capture moments or include friends who are unable to attend in person.
The New Year 2026 sticker pack, video call effects, animated reactions, and animated Status stickers are already live and will remain available for the duration of the holiday season.
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