WhatsApp new contacts tab with online status, birthdays

You know that moment when you’re scrolling through WhatsApp trying to remember if your cousin’s birthday is this week or next, and also wondering why your friend hasn’t replied even though they were “online” two minutes ago? Well, WhatsApp might be about to fix both problems at once.

The app is quietly testing a brand new contacts tab that puts all of this in one spot: who’s online right now, who was recently active, and a little cake icon when someone’s birthday rolls around.

So what exactly does this new tab do?

According to details picked up from the beta build, the new tab will have a search bar so you can find someone by name, phone number or username. Nothing new there. But the interesting bit is the sorting option.

If you choose to sort by activity instead of the alphabet, contacts who are online right now jump to the top of the list, followed by people who were recently active. A small green dot appears over their profile photo when they’re online. If that information isn’t available because of someone’s privacy settings, you might instead see their last seen time.

This isn’t entirely out of nowhere. Earlier in 2026, WhatsApp had already started testing a similar green online indicator, but it only showed up on a contact’s individual info screen. It looks like that idea has now grown into this wider contacts tab.

And the birthday thing?

This is the part I actually like. If you’ve saved someone’s birthday in your phone’s contacts app, WhatsApp will pull that date automatically and show a cake icon with a note that it’s their birthday that day. You won’t need to type the date into WhatsApp separately, it just reads it from your phone.

WhatsApp is also testing a version where the birthday shows up right on the contact’s info screen too, so you can check it in advance instead of getting caught off guard.

Wait, does this mean everyone can see when I’m online?

Not really, and this is the bit worth slowing down for. According to WABetaInfo, which first reported the feature, the new tab respects your existing “last seen” and “online” privacy settings.

So if you’ve already hidden your online status, the green dot simply won’t show up for you. And if you’ve hidden your last seen time, you won’t be sorted by recent activity either. In other words, this tab isn’t adding a new layer of visibility, it’s just reorganising information you’ve already chosen to share.

<p>[EDITOR NOTE: add a line here on how many people in Kuwait tend to keep their WhatsApp “last seen” hidden, or your own habit with it]</p>

What this is part of

This contacts tab isn’t a standalone change. It’s part of a bigger reshuffle of WhatsApp’s layout. Earlier reports suggest WhatsApp plans to move Channels into the chats tab, which could eventually mean the Updates tab disappears altogether, freeing up space for this new contacts tab in the bottom navigation bar.

The test version also shows a shortcut to Meta AI at the bottom of the contacts list, along with an option to invite new people to join WhatsApp.

When is it coming?

Here’s the honest answer: nobody knows yet, not even roughly. The feature has only been spotted in a beta build for Android and hasn’t been rolled out even to beta testers more broadly. WhatsApp hasn’t given any official launch date, and the company often tweaks the design or drops features entirely before a wider release.

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