WhatsApp rolls out festive features for New Year 2026: Animated stickers, video call effects and more

WhatsApp has announced a host of new festive features to help users ring in the New Year. The Meta-owned messaging platform says that New Year's Eve is historically its busiest day, often breaking records for text and call volumes globally.

In a blogpost announcing the new features on Monday, WhatsApp wrote, “On a regular day, we support over 100 billion messages and 2 billion calls - but the twenty-four hours when the world welcomes a New Year always tops our charts. Whether it's a video call that unites families across continents, or a group chat that organizes a celebration, we’re proud to play a small role in making people’s wishes for next year special.”

To mark the arrival of the New year, the Meta owned personal messaging platform is rolling out four new features to add ‘festive touches’ to the holiday wishes. The new features include new sticker packes, interactive video call effects and more.

Here is everything you need to know about the new WhatsApp features for New Year 2026.

WhatsApp's four new features for 2026:

1) 2026 Sticker Pack: WhatsApp is allowing to users to access a dedicated "2026 sticker pack" to share the greetings for New Year.

2) Video Call Effects: For those celebrating the New Year virtually, WhatsApp has added new effects during video calls. The personal messaging app will allow users can tap the effects icon during a video call to trigger fireworks, confetti, and star animations that light up the screen. So if you are counting down the New Year along with your friends on a video call, there might be a cool new trick that you can show off.

3) Animated Confetti Reactions: WhatsApp is bringing back its special reaction animation which can be accessed when users tap on the confetti emoji while reacting to a message.

4) Status Updates: WhatsApp is brining animated stickers even to the Status section, which the app says is the first time in its history. Users will now be able to use a special "2026 layout" combined with an animated sticker to post their New Year updates.

WhatsApp's tips for New Year celebrations:

WhatsApp also shared some useful tips that users can keep in mind while party planning for the New Year in group chats.

The Meta owned messaging owned messaging giant shared the following tips:

Events: WhatsApp says users can create an event and pin it to the chat to keep it visible, collect RSVPs, and ensure everyone is in the loop for the New Year plans.

Polls: The company suggests that users can take advantage of the Polls feature in Group chats to decide on various crucial decisions for the party including food, drinks, and activities for the night.

Live Location: To ensure their safety, WhatsApp says users can share their live location to help friends find the venue or to let loved ones know they have reached home safely.

Voice and Video Notes: This one's a no brainer but for what it's worth, WhatsApp says for friends who cannot attend the New Year party in person, they can share video and voice notes with the loved ones.