WhatsApp continues to roll out features aimed at making its messaging experience richer, and its latest experiment could be a big deal for anyone who spends time scrolling Instagram. A new discovery in the Android beta suggests the app is about to make sharing Instagram Reels in chats far easier than it is today.

WhatsApp already lets users pull in Instagram and Facebook content through its media picker. Now the company is testing a dedicated Reels shortcut button that cuts that process down to a single tap.

A Reels button in the chat menu

watic

The feature was spotted in WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.26.42.9 on the Google Play Store. Once live, it will let users send Reels videos from within a chat in seconds.

Under the current setup, reaching Instagram Reels requires opening the source list in the gallery picker and switching the content type — a process that makes the feature easy to miss and cumbersome to use. The new shortcut button will sit directly in the chat attachment menu, removing that friction entirely.

Picking videos from three tabs

Tapping the button opens a dedicated sharing screen with three tabs: "Recently Watched", "Saved" and "Liked".

From there, users can browse Reels they have recently viewed, saved for later, or liked on Instagram, pick one, and send it straight into the conversation.

For now, the feature is only being tested in the beta version, and there is no word yet on when — or whether — it will reach all users.