iWorld
Kaumudi Mahajan joins Meta India as head of entertainment partnerships
Mumbai: In a LinkedIn post, Kaumudi Mahajan announced that she has joined Meta India as head of entertainment partnerships. She also mentioned that last week was her final week at Disney Star, where she held the position of senior vice president of marketing and strategy for Marathi Network. She had spent 14 years with the latter.
Mahajan says in the LinkedIn post, “When I joined Disney Star straight from campus, I was always amazed by the kind of impact it created on its consumers. Mine was one of the billion imaginations it inspired. It’s when I stepped in – I realised it was because of a passionate team who made it what it is.”
“My last seven years at Star Pravah have taught me that with grit and grace, we can win the world. They say it takes a village, I say it takes one large family at Disney Star to see a dream and then chase it until it becomes reality,” she added.
Talking about her new role at Meta India, Mahajan quips, “Equally, I am looking forward to my next challenge at one of the most innovative companies that helps people connect, build communities, and grow businesses. I am thrilled as I start this new chapter and excited for what the future holds!”
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
