WhatsApp is one of the most used messaging apps around, with approximately two billion monthly users — a number that eclipses even giants like Facebook Messenger and WeChat in comparison, and also represents a sizable chunk of the world's population. As is only befitting software with that kind of popularity, it's available in a lot of languages — over 60. Right now, the language the app uses is determined by your phone, but a new change may start giving users a lot more control.
The latest beta of the WhatsApp app shows evidence of work towards a language picker that allows you to manually override the system default, as spotted by WABetaInfo. When enabled, tapping the option will present you with all languages in which the app is currently available.
A similar feature was already available in some markets, like India, but this appears to be a global setting that should eventually be accessible to everyone. It shows up just as we're thinking about one of Android 13's biggest upcoming features — per-app language settings. The next version of Android will support much more granular control and allow users to change languages on an app-by-app basis. It's live as of DP2, and while it still needs a bit of work, it's a global approach to the same concept WhatsApp is pursuing here.
Whatever your motives are, if you want to change the language of WhatsApp, you'll have to keep on using the system-level setting for the time being — this upcoming feature is not yet live for users, not even in the beta version. Who knows — maybe Android 13's global setting will arrive before this does.