WhatsApp is reportedly planning to bring three new features to its app soon, including linking accounts to Instagram, in order to improve chat and notifications for its over 1.5 billion users.

Besides account linking, the two other features under development at WhatsApp are Vacation and Silent Mode, according to WABetaInfo, a popular blog that tracks WhatsApp-related developments and upcoming features.

The account linking feature might give privacy-conscious users more nightmares about data sharing and possibility of leaks, but it seems to have been developed for WhatsApp Business primarily, so that businesses can easily sell on Instagram and communicate with buyers or potential buyers through WhatsApp seamlessly. However, WABetaInfo also said that references to account linking were found in the normal WhatsApp app as well. Instagram Linked Accounts option will show up under your profile settings.

Another feature which could be coming soon would let users keep archived chats from getting unarchived when you get a new message in that chat. With Vacation Mode feature, archived chats will remain muted, if you have previously turned on Mute notifications for that chat. This means you can safely archive an annoying WhatsApp group that you don’t want to participate in, without leaving the group.

Besides Vacation Mode, WhatsApp could also soon add a silent mode which would hide the unread count badge for muted chats. This comes enabled by default, but you can change it to behave as it currently does.

With Inputs from IANS