WhatsApp is developing an AI-powered tool that expands photos to fill a smartphone screen, a feature with particular relevance for users in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and other African countries who use WhatsApp Status as a primary creative channel.
The feature appears in the WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.26.33.2 and is still under development, not yet available for testing.
When released, it will let users expand any photo to the 9:16 format, the vertical full-screen ratio used by WhatsApp Status, Instagram Stories and TikTok. Meta AI will generate content around the edges of the original image.
How the tool works
The expansion tool operates inside WhatsApp’s existing drawing editor, the same screen where users apply filters, add stickers and animate photos. Users scroll to the editing options, select expand, and Meta AI processes the image in seconds before presenting the result. If they do not like it, they can repeat the process.
The tool adds content around the photo rather than cutting it. Meta AI analyses what is already in the image and generates a plausible extension of the scene around the edges, making the expanded photo fit the 9:16 format without distorting the original content.
WhatsApp Status in Africa
WhatsApp Status is not used the same way everywhere. In North America and Europe, Instagram Stories and Snapchat dominate visual social sharing. In much of Africa, WhatsApp Status is the primary channel for sharing personal updates, business announcements, celebrations, opinions and grief. It functions simultaneously as a personal diary, a marketing channel, a news feed and a community noticeboard.
The 9:16 format is the standard for vertical full-screen content. For a small business owner in Lagos, Nigeria, posting daily specials, a fashion vendor in Accra, Ghana, showing new arrivals, or a pastor in Nairobi, Kenya, sharing a morning devotional, the difference between a photo that fills the screen and one that does not is the difference between content that commands attention and content that gets scrolled past.
Nigerian and Ghanaian entrepreneurs have built entire businesses on WhatsApp Status. Content creators across the continent have developed visual languages specific to the format.
The tools available for making that content look professional have historically required either expensive apps, design skills, or both. Meta AI doing that work automatically inside WhatsApp removes a barrier for users in markets where design tools are less accessible.
Meta’s broader AI push and rollout
This feature does not arrive in isolation. Meta has been systematically building AI capabilities into WhatsApp over the past two years, adding image generation, style transformation, photo animation, element removal and scene reimagination to the drawing editor.
Existing AI editing tools in WhatsApp include:
- image generation
- style transformation
- photo animation
- element removal
- scene reimagination
Users can already apply artistic styles like 3D, anime or cartoon to transform their images, add or remove elements, reimagine an entire composition with a text prompt, or animate a static photo. Each of those features follows the same design logic: bring professional-grade creative tools directly into the app that billions of people already use, in a workflow they already understand, without requiring them to learn something new.
For Meta, which generates a significant and growing share of its advertising revenue from African markets, keeping users inside WhatsApp for more of their creative workflow is a commercial priority. For African users, the practical benefit is tools that were previously inaccessible becoming available at no cost inside an app already on their phone.
The photo expansion feature is currently in development on Android. WhatsApp has not shared a timeline for public availability or confirmed which regions will receive it at launch. Based on the rollout pattern of previous WhatsApp AI editing tools, Status updates are likely to get the feature first, with chat integration following later.
WhatsApp has historically restricted some Meta AI features to certain markets. It remains unclear whether African users will receive the feature at the same time as users elsewhere.
