WhatsApp Archives

WhatsApp Text Status Updates Returning Next Week

Mar 16, 2017 By

With over a billion active users, WhatsApp is among the most popular chat applications in the world. Owned by Facebook, the app brings forward a number of innovations from time to time. After the Facebook acquisition, the number of updates started increasing and it moved from a traditional chat app to a full blown communications tool. WhatsApp introduced a new feature a couple of weeks ago, which was rather polarizing. We are talking about the change made to WhatsApp status updates becoming a visual medium instead of a text based medium. However, WhatsApp text status updates are now returning.

Those who miss the WhatsApp text status updates need to wait another week till they make a comeback. The text based updates will return in the form of the ‘about’ tab that the app is about to introduce. The feature has already been rolled out to the WhatsApp Beta users. The feature comes with the good old default options such as Busy, Available, At the Movies, etc.

WhatsApp recently issued a statement saying they have heard from their users that people missed the ability to set a persistent text-only update in their profile. Following this intense feedback from the users, the app has now integrated this feature into the ‘About’ section in profile settings. Now, the update will appear next to profile names anytime the users view their contacts.

WhatsApp text status updates are returning, and it is a massive relief to those who did not want another platform to showcase a day in their life. Facebook has been attacking Snapchat by introducing the stories feature in some form in all their apps. It was introduced as the Instagram Stories, followed by the WhatsApp Status update, and then the Facebook Messenger Day. All three of them offer the same feature, and it is clear attack from Facebook on to Snapchat. The update will begin rolling out next week, and it will come to the iOS users earlier than the Android users.

German Group Files Lawsuit Against WhatsApp for Compromising User Data

Jan 30, 2017 By

For an average internet user, online safety is the first and foremost priority, when browsing online. Nevertheless, ever since the social networks came into existence, in last one decade, online security is a thing of past. It doesn’t matter if you lock your albums or provide minimal information on social profiles, you end up comprising your online security via apps, exchange of media files and shady looking links embedded in videos and GIFs circulating all over the internet. WhatsApp (a popular phone messenger service) is no different than other social sites, in this regard.

The German group claimed that WhatsApp follows a shady process while acquiring and sharing data.

Recently, the Federal of German Consumer Organization has filed a legal case against WhatsApp in the Berlin state court. It’s a Germany-based public forum that protects consumer rights. Putting up a question on WhatsApp’s data sharing practices, the group has stated a valid reason behind this lawsuit. According to them, WhatsApp follows a shady process while acquiring and sharing data.

On January 30, Monday, the group filed the lawsuit on the grounds that “WhatsApp unethically collects, stores, utilizes a user’s data and passes it on to Facebook illegally”. While we know that Facebook won’t misuse this data for grave purposes like spreading terrorism, however, it’s ‘unethical’ of WhatsApp to do this.

Ever since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acquired this global messaging service in the summer of 2014, WhatsApp has been functioning under Facebook’s wing. It was a $19 billion deal that attract attention worldwide. Since then, WhatsApp (which is a phone number based messaging service) has been sharing their user numbers with Facebook. Probably this is why we’ve been seeing many of our phone contacts appearing in the ‘Friend Suggestions’ column on Facebook.

This angered consumer attorneys in Germany as well as other countries. While WhatsApp claims that it has updated all its terms and conditions in line with appropriate laws, we can’t say for sure if they’re sticking to their word. The company claims it has ‘temporarily stopped’ using the data of European WhatsApp customers for advertising purpose on Facebook. However, it can’t be said for other countries.

WhatsApp Messenger Stopped Working on Old Android, Windows 7 and iPhone Handsets

Jan 2, 2017 By

World’s most popular phone messenger that has been facing criticism on safety issues found a new way to boost online security. On 31^st December 2016, WhatsApp messenger stopped working on old Windows 7, Android and iPhone handsets. In other words, the app no longer runs on Android 2.1, 2.2, iOS and iPhone 3GS platforms.

WhatsApp Messenger is updated with new security features for added security.

The company owners have taken this measure to introduce new safety features in the updated versions. These features work only on newer operating systems. This step was taken to prevent others from reading private conversations. It’ll come in handy for established business and government purposes.

The company initially claimed that the owners of a few old Nokia handsets and BlackBerry models will experience troubles with the brand new version. Nevertheless, the messenger went back late the last year due to consumer complaints.

The newer updates are scheduled in 2017. They’ll allow Whatsapp messenger users to edit or delete old messages even after they’ve been delivered. These changes will allow the app to integrate privacy services and encryption.

The Whatsapp support team has advised old handset owners to buy a new phone if they want to continue using this app. A company representative recently updated on their blog that the company will extend support for Nokia Symbian S60, Nokia S40, Blackberry OS and Blackberry 10 until June 30^th 2017 only.

As per the company officials, when WhatsApp messenger was launched in 2009, majority of people used basic Android versions. Some of them worked on Java based platforms offered by Nokia and BlackBerry handsets. Besides their phone requirements were very different from today. In last 7 years, the tech-world has witnessed significant changes in technologies. Consequently, the company needs to frame new policies, keeping in mind the present requirements.

This wasn’t very surprising. The announcement came after a warning issued by Team WhatsApp earlier. The company had already set the deadline on pulling support for older handsets. Hopefully, this will make the WhatsApp Messenger less vulnerable to hacking and virus attacks.

WhatsApp Receives Video Calling Support After A Long Wait

Nov 15, 2016 By

The instant messaging market is tougher than ever. Google recently introduced its messaging app Allo which has received quite a huge reception by the fans and with apps that are already in the market are constantly updating in order to stay ahead. Apps like Messenger already have introduced the video calling feature to compete with Google Duo and Apple. After long anticipation WhatsApp has received the video calling feature. The users were waiting for this for a long time and lot of the users also are said to switch to other messaging services in order to video call.

WhatsApp now lets you make or receive video calls just like any other messaging service out there. All you need to do is update the app and have a reliable cellular or a Wi-Fi connection and you are good to go. Facebook just had to include this feature in WhatsApp because of its huge active user numbers. WhatsApp has over one billion active users across iOS, Android and even desktop and it surely is more popular than the Facebook made messaging service, Messenger. The two messaging apps owned by Facebook are looking quite similar if you look at it that way. Both the apps offer all the basic messaging need to the users. The only major difference is that WhatsApp offers you the full end to end encryption which was installed earlier this year but messenger does not offer that.

The WhatsApp Video calling feature will allow you to video chat just like any other services are offering. According to Manpreet Singh, the company wants to offer the best video calling service among all its direct competitors. The huge competition that the company is facing in this service is Google’s Duo, Apple’s FaceTime and Microsoft’s Skype and the lead mobile engineer believes that WhatsApp will be able to beat them.

You Don’t Have To Let WhatsApp Push Your Information To Facebook:

Aug 25, 2016 By

Facebook and WhatsApp have been on the same platforms for almost a couple of years now. What’s up had always had a reputation of maintaining its uses privacy but it seems like it has Fallen For proposition by Facebook which is so convincing that it has decided to alter its privacy policy.

Sounds caring, but its true. Facebook has now convinced WhatsApp to make a change to its privacy policy and handover sum of its uses related data to the cause of targeting more advertisements. This means that the next time you have accepted WhatsApp new terms and conditions, your personal data would be shared with Facebook so you can get more advertisements which are rather annoying.

WhatsApp on the other hand has a completely different approach towards this concept. According to them if the data is shared with Facebook then the user’s will have many more advantages. They say that the sharing of data with FB will allow the basic metrics of how people are using WhatsApp and how often they use a certain service and of course it will be able to keep away. This seems a little Ironic because with the kind of advertisements that one might start seeing the creators might prove to be the biggest spammers for their customers.

And after all these rants escorts come back to the hardcore reality. Facebook will use the data to get a better friend suggestions and show as more relevant ads. Of course for people who did not have Facebook accounts, which is very unlikely in today’s world then they might not face any harassment at all. Also people who are using Facebook account will be able to see friends from the companies they work with, the schools they have studied in all from the place they used to work in the past.

This sounds like fun but there are options for those who are not happy with this change. For those users who do not like the approach, they will not completely be able to stop the harassment from Facebook but they will be able to prevent advertisements from coming in. This however, comes with a disclaimer. WhatsApp will never the less give your information away to Facebook and this sharing would reportedly help them with improvements in securing systems, fighting spam and also prevent other infringement activity.

A simple tip – try not to go to “I agree” directly. Just remember to uncheck the box first. If you messed up, just go to Settings-Account-Share my account info and uncheck the box there. You will pull through.

Read And Send WhatsApp Messages Through Siri Soon

Aug 20, 2016 By

iPhone users are set to get an expanded functionality of WhatsApp that will allow them to use voice commands of Siri in order to read or even send a message, this update will also allow Siri to make voice calls. The WhatsApp functions that Siri will be able to access were leaked in a WhatsApp translation request. The request, about an explanation text that is shown to the users when they were prompted to give the access of WhatsApp to Siri, read along the lines of “This lets you use Siri to quickly send and read messages and make voice calls.”

It is expected that the Siri integration of WhatsApp will only roll out once the iOS 10 is released worldwide and available for all the iPhone users, which is expected to be released right after their next iPhone which is due to release in September. At the WWDC 2016, Apple had introduced the latest version of its OS and made the crowd very excited by bringing its voice based virtual assistant that is Siri up to speed in order to fight its competitors like Google Now by allowing its functionality to be extended by third party developers.

As it is mentioned above, the rumors started after a WhatssApp translation request was leaked. However, it is worth noticing that whenever in the past such translations have been leaked they have been very good indicators as to what the users are going to witness in the upcoming features for the instant messaging app. The company uses crowdsourcing in order to translate messages and interface texts which are shown to a user and in the past these little things have been leaked out, thus letting the world know what new is coming to them. Comment below and let us know if you think Siri voice controls would be cool for WhatsApp.