How would you increase Whatsapp status engagement?

What is Status? 

Whatsapp Status is an option in whatsapp which allows the user to share any specific memory, thought via image, text or video which disappears after 24 hours and seen by people by going to status tab on whatsapp application based on privacy settings of users posting those status. 

It is very similar to facebook stories and instagram stories. 

Clarifying Questions

Any specific user you want to target? No, you can decide

Is there any challenge with status which users are facing? none that we are aware of 

Goal : to improve engagement of whatsapp status

Different Users based on age

1.Teenagers

2.Millenials 

3.Old people 

millenials are a right target market since they are heavy users of whatsapp for work and for communicating with family and friends. 

Lets look at the painpoints 

1) millenials are very busy people and they do not have time to upload stories on facebook, whatsapp and instagram. Being on so many platforms and being active all the time is an overkill. 

2) There is no way to interact with status apart from direct message. Users are generally hesitant to send direct messages as it is more intrusive compared to a like or a comment. 

3) There is no possibility to create some social engagement with status since right now there is only option of direct message. 

4) The only way to add status is from the status screen and generally millenials use whatsapp for conversations and not for adding memories or posts. 

Prioritizing them, 3>4>2>1.

lets accordingly focus on top painpoints. 

Solutions 

1) Option to create a status from any message in a group or 1-2 chat  (could be text or image).

2) Allow users to comment or like a status. Also extend this to allow other users to comment on a comment or like a comment.   

3) Those likes and comments will be visible to all users via a popup by clicking on number of likes and comments to make it more engaging socially. 

4) Add option tofollow users and send notifications when they post. 

5) Add option to go live and interact with other users who wish to join the live conversation and are permitted to see the status for that user. 

6) option to see status by clicking on DP. 

Prioritizing based on impact to the goal and effort,

6>1>2>3>5>4

I have kept 5 as low priority since a lot of users wont prefer to go live. Also it will require some effort to build this in the right way to avoid cannibalizing the real use of whatsapp. 

Metrics 

Number of users interacting with status daily , weekly monthly

Number of status updates viewed per user per day 

Number of status updates liked and commented on per day per week per month 

Average posts per user per day per week per month

Average time spent per user per day while watching status updates