WhatsApp is testing a new option that will let ordinary users add a banner-style cover photo to the top of their profile, a feature so far reserved for business accounts.
The change was spotted in the latest Android beta as reported on WabetaInfo and, if released more widely, will let people pick an image from their profile settings that appears above their avatar, much like cover images on other social platforms.
Adding a cover photo will be straightforward. The beta reveals a cover-picker inside profile settings where users can select or capture an image to display as a prominent header on their profile page.
Business accounts already use a similar banner to show brand imagery or key information, and the new option would bring that same visual layer to regular profiles.
WhatsApp is also building basic privacy controls for these cover photos. The options now being tested let users choose between Everyone, My contacts, and Nobody so people can limit who sees the banner.
At the moment there is no “My contacts except” exclusion option for cover photos, though that more selective control exists for other profile elements and could appear later.
This rollout seems to be part of a wider push to make profiles more discoverable and expressive, coming ahead of WhatsApp’s work on usernames which will let people be found without sharing phone numbers.
The username work is moving through beta channels too, and the two features together would give users both a unique handle and a visual identity on the platform.
A few quick observations. First, this is a low-friction upgrade that many users will appreciate because it is purely cosmetic and optional, yet it can make conversations feel less anonymous and more personal.
Second, privacy will be the practical test: offering Everyone, My contacts, and Nobody is a sensible start, but users and watchdogs will expect the same fine-grained options that exist for other profile elements, for example, the ability to hide a cover from a small set of contacts.
Third, opening profiles to cover photos invites both creative self-expression and new forms of clutter or promotional content, so WhatsApp will need sensible defaults and guardrails to keep profiles readable and safe.
Finally, from a product perspective, rolling this out during the username transition makes sense. Usernames reduce reliance on phone numbers and cover photos help accounts stand out visually.
If WhatsApp follows through with robust privacy settings and moderation tools, this will be a useful, unobtrusive way for people to shape their presence on the app. For now, the feature remains in beta and will be published to the broader user base only after further testing.
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