Reason why subtle new WhatsApp change is so uncomfortable for young people

WhatsApp is a go-to app for many.

Sure, you can send messages on Instagram or Facebook or even just over text, but this is where the serious group chat banter goes down.

Or, you know, more serious out-of-hours work conversations or a quick catch up with your parents - when it's not down that is.

So, with WhatsApp being a core feature on so many of our phones, you can bet we’ll notice any little change. But users have been left seriously uncomfortable after a subtle tweak to messages.

And there’s a reason why it might be putting you about so much. People were even worrying their phone had malfunctioned when they noticed the change despite how minor it is.

It's a go-to for many. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

As you’ll know, when you open a WhatsApp chat you can see some information about the person you’re talking to, like if they are ‘online’ or ‘typing…’ a message to you.

But the app has now altered the way this appears, using capital letters in front of the words instead of them being all lower-case.

Users slammed on X: “Why has WhatsApp capitalised the first letters on 'online' and 'typing'. Pls, it's making me icky."

As others fumed: “The introduction of the capital T for ‘typing’ on WhatsApp has bothered me more than it should."

And it’s all because Gen z and other post-Millennials have quite the affiliation with only writing in lowercase, with no uppercase letters to be seen.

(Artur Debat / Getty Images)

Some are even said to have turned off the automatic capital letter function all together.

Over the years, music artists have mirrored this, releasing albums and songs all listed in lowercase – from Ariana Grande’s thank u, next to Taylor Swift’s folkore.

On Quora, this obsession for ‘teens’ and ‘young adults’ with using all lower case in communication is a trend for several reasons.

The Bot advises it is down to:

· speed and convenience

· informality and casualness

· emphasis and expression

· mimicking speech patterns

bye bye all lower case. (John Doe)

Users agree they mostly type in lowercase ‘because it feels less formal’ and they ‘want to save time’, while others slam it as ‘lazy’.

Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch calls it ‘minimalist typography’ and it was arguably made popular on Tumblr back in the noughties - something many of us might be nostalgic over.

So, with lowercase typing being such a popularised trend both in culture and our day-to-day messaging, it might be quite the shock for some users to suddenly face those upper caps on their beloved WhatsApp.

“Only a capital letter different, but I hate it so much,” one user wrote.

Topics: Social Media, Technology, WhatsApp, News

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_