It’s no secret that the UK runs on WhatsApp, with the Meta-owned messaging app for iPhone and Android replacing traditional text messaging for millions up and down the country. Over the past few months, the app has come in for some welcome updates, and as the holidays approach WhatsApp has confirmed it will be bringing a slew of new features to your phone very soon.

First on the list of handy new tools is missed call messages. That’s not just a notification, which you might expect if you don’t see an incoming WhatsApp call. Now, if you don’t answer, someone can leave you a voice or video note (depending on whether they were audio or video calling respectively) for you to pick up when you see your phone next.

WhatsApp said in a blog post this new feature “will make voicemails a thing of the past”. It’s similar to Apple’s recent introduction of FaceTime video voicemail messages feature that you can record for someone if they don’t pick up.

The update also brings reactions in voice chats. Confusingly, a voice chat is not a WhatsApp audio call or a voice note. Voice chat is the function found in group chats where, after tapping an icon in the top right of the chat, you can start a live voice chat that people can join via a notification if they want to.

“Voice chats help you quickly shift between messaging and talking live without ringing the whole group,” WhatsApp said. “Now you can react during a voice chat, so you can share a quick ‘cheers!’ without interrupting the conversation.”

One last update to the calls function in WhatsApp is that on video calls, whoever is speaking is now highlighted – à la Zoom – to help everyone follow along.

Elsewhere in the app, WhatsApp says Meta AI can now give you better image generation within the app. I personally steer well clear of such tools, and generally resent that I can’t switch Meta AI off, but if you like using it to create images, it’s supposed to be better now.

Link previews have also been improved within chats, and if you use WhatsApp Web, or the app on Windows or Mac, there’s a new media tab in the app that lets you search for all documents, links and media shared in all chats.

Finally, if you use WhatsApp’s Status feature there are new stickers you can now use, plus the ability to add questions others can directly respond to, a little like you can do on Instagram (also owned by Meta). A similar questions feature is also available with this update on WhatsApp Channels for admins to “engage with their audience and get responses in real-time.”

The free update for WhatsApp should be rolling out to your phone in the coming days, if you don’t have it already. If you have automatic updates on you might not even notice, but the features will eventually appear in the app.