Few days ago, Whatsapp added Android Nougat 7.1.1 like app shortcuts to its app in a beta update. However, they were not fully functional and worked only for some users. Whatsapp has now rolled out a new update for the app shortcuts and it works better and has more shortcuts than the previous update. The previous update only had an app shortcut for New chat.
The latest beta update of Whatsapp with version number 2.17.288 has now added a few new shortcuts to the app. These app shortcuts include camera, starred messages and the name and display picture of your most recent chats. You can access them by long pressing the Whatsapp icon on your homescreen. These shortcuts could also be individually dragged and dropped anywhere on your launcher for easier access.
However, the update is only available for the beta users of Whatsapp and is expected to roll out to the stable version soon. Also, currently only phones Running Android Nougat 7.1.1 shows the app shortcuts for recent chats and camera. Other phones running lower versions of Android only displays the app shortcut for Camera as of now. Let us know in the comments below whether the app shortcuts are available in your phone.