WhatsApp Revamped Chat Lists Interface Arrives on iOS With Drafts Filter

WhatsApp is pushing a redesigned chat lists interface to iPhone users this week, giving iOS users a similar chat-list management system to what Android users received first. Version 26.21.74, released Tuesday on the App Store, lets users choose which lists stay visible in the main row and which get moved into a secondary menu, according to 9to5Mac and WABetaInfo. The rollout is staged, so not every user on the latest version will see it immediately.

The old setup put every list built-in filters like Favorites, Unread, Groups, and Communities, plus any custom lists a user created in a single horizontal strip at the top of the Chats tab. The more lists a user built, the more sideways scrolling was required to reach them, as WABetaInfo noted last month. The new interface doesn't replace that strip; it just lets users decide what goes in it.

From a crowded row to a curated interface: what changed in the WhatsApp chat lists update

The core mechanic is straightforward. Lists a user wants visible stay pinned in the main row. Everything else moves automatically into a separate section, accessible by tapping a Filter button. If preferences change, an Edit control lets users pull any hidden list back to the main view at any time, WABetaInfo reported.

One specific annoyance is also addressed: Favorites was permanently anchored in the main row, visible even when it contained no contacts and with no option to remove it, WABetaInfo noted last month. Users can now push it into the secondary Filter menu entirely. It stays accessible from there; it just stops consuming main-row space for users who never needed it.

Worth noting for clarity: an earlier development report from WABetaInfo last month referred to the secondary button as "More." The shipped interface uses Filter, and that's the authoritative label.

Beyond those navigation improvements, some questions about custom list behavior remain open. Whether lists can be reordered by dragging, whether there's a cap on how many a user can create, and whether configurations sync consistently across devices aren't confirmed in the current reporting. Those details may emerge as the feature reaches more users.

The Drafts filter: a new default list on iOS

The update introduces a new built-in filter called Drafts. It collects every conversation where a user started composing a message but left the chat without sending it or clearing the input field. Those conversations get a green "Draft" label in the chat list, per 9to5Mac and WABetaInfo.

Before this filter existed, finding an abandoned draft meant scrolling through the full conversation list and scanning for that green label. Someone juggling half-finished replies across multiple group chats had no efficient way to surface all of them at once. Now they do.

The Drafts filter matters beyond the organizational improvements in this update because it changes what the Chats tab actually does. A filter that aggregates unsent messages turns a passive inbox into something closer to a lightweight task list. That's useful whether a user has twenty custom lists or none forgetting a half-written reply isn't a power-user problem.

Three groups benefit most from this update overall: users who have accumulated enough custom lists that horizontal scrolling became routine; anyone who regularly loses track of messages they started and abandoned; and users who never used Favorites but had no way to hide it. The first group gains a tidier main row. The second gains the Drafts filter. The third finally gets a clean interface that doesn't surface lists they don't use.

Who has it now and how to check

Version 26.21.74, released Tuesday on the App Store, is the build carrying the new interface. The same version is also surfacing the feature for some TestFlight beta testers, a simultaneous stable-and-beta deployment that suggests the feature is moving out of active testing even if full availability is still ahead, 9to5Mac and WABetaInfo reported.

WhatsApp activates features through server-side flags. Installing the right version is necessary but not sufficient. Having 26.21.74 without seeing the new interface doesn't require any further action the feature switches on automatically when the account is included in the rollout.

The clearest sign it's active: a Filter button appears in the Chats tab alongside the chat list row. WhatsApp has not announced a timeline for universal availability. WABetaInfo expects broader access over the coming weeks. No confirmed workaround exists for users who haven't received it yet.

WhatsApp's rollout pace is characteristically cautious even for features that have been officially announced, access tends to expand gradually, as 9to5Mac noted. The practical advice is simple: update to 26.21.74, look for the Filter button, and wait if it isn't there.

Part of a broader rethink of the iOS Chats tab

The chat list redesign fits a pattern. WhatsApp has been working through a steady rework of the iOS Chats tab, with Android reliably receiving changes before they reach iPhone, 9to5Mac noted. Two other changes are in active rollout alongside it, each reported separately with no confirmed coordination between them.

A horizontal status feed is appearing at the top of the Chats tab for some iOS beta testers, replacing the "Chats" title label and pulling status updates into the main view from the dedicated Updates tab. The feed is still in testing and rolling out gradually, WABetaInfo reported last week. As currently tested, the status feed contains no advertisements between updates, though that could change before a full release.

Separately, WhatsApp began rolling its Liquid Glass redesign to a broader iOS audience in mid-May, after an initial limited test that started last October, per 9to5Mac. The Liquid Glass treatment applies iOS 26's translucent, glass-like visual style to the navigation bar, chat bar, and in-chat elements. The broader rollout covers that first stage; WABetaInfo reported in early May that WhatsApp appears to be holding a full release until every part of the interface is optimized for the new design language, meaning some UI elements still display the older style.

Taken together, the Chats tab is seeing more concurrent change right now than it has in years. Three separate updates, each on its own rollout schedule, each affecting a different layer of the same screen.

The chat list overhaul is the one with the clearest immediate impact. A row that shows only the lists a user actually wants, a secondary menu holding everything else, and a dedicated filter for abandoned drafts none of that requires any setup beyond receiving the update. With the Liquid Glass visual redesign and a revised status feed both still expanding to new users, what iPhone users see in the Chats tab today is likely a transitional state, the current reporting on all three rollouts suggests.