Spice up your New Year with WhatsApp's new stickers, animations, video call effects

While the New Year is set to greet us all in a few hours, it looks like some special greetings are reserved for tech enthusiasts as WhatsApp is rolling out a fresh spate of features on account of New Year’s Eve to spice up the occasion.

WhatsApp's New Year-oriented update brings new features to enhance your messages and calls, wherein a festive touch is packed within a new 2026 sticker pack, fun video call effects, animated reactions, and more. These new add-ons make it easier to spread New Year’s greetings.

Allowing users to add fireworks, confetti, and star animations during calls, WhatsApp announced the addition of a special sticker pack for the occasion and new video call effects in a recent blog post.

The app is also reintroducing special reactions, where users will see a confetti animation when they react to messages with the confetti emoji.

In addition to New Year-related festivities, the Meta-owned messaging app has added animated stickers to WhatsApp’s Status feature, providing a 2026-themed layout for sharing New Year’s greetings.

The company has also rolled out tips to better plan New Year’s gatherings, encouraging users to create events, pin them in group chats, collect RSVPs, and share updates.

To jazz up the New Year celebrations, users can use polls to decide on food, drinks, and activities, while live location sharing could help friends reach party venues safely.

New Year’s Eve is traditionally WhatsApp’s busiest time, often leading to service disruptions as millions connect with loved ones, and this is where the new voicemail feature kicks in and enables users to leave voice or video messages after missed calls, ensuring that New Year’s greetings are delivered even if connections fail.