WhatsApp chat-specific themes are now rolling out

WhatsApp has been working on chat-specific theme support for a few months now, and the good news is that the feature has finally started rolling out. The bad news is it's only accessible by those who are using the Android beta of WhatsApp.

So, while most of us won't get this right away, at least we can take a look and see what we can expect to roll out to every WhatsApp user in a few months or so.

Before you say "WhatsApp already has chat themes", yes it does, but the new feature lets you select different ones for different chats. So you're no longer confined to a one-size fits all (chats) sort of situation. Facebook Messenger has had chat-specific themes for ages, and it's kind of strange how WhatsApp is only now trying to get in on the action.

Anyway, you'll have 20 different colors to pick from, as well as more than 22 textured themes, as you can see from the screenshots above. Applying a theme will automatically apply a matching message color, and you can then opt to customize each chat with a different wallpaper while keeping that message color.

And unlike the way theming works in Facebook Messenger, the themes here are private, so each member of a conversation can customize it however they like.