The ban was prompted by concerns of US authorities potentially accessing user data for such apps because of the CLOUD Act. The army recommended that all army personnel use Threema instead, as the service is based in Switzerland. This new encryption feature added an additional layer of protection to chat backups stored either on Apple iCloud or Google Drive. WhatsApp was initially criticized for its lack of encryption, sending information as plaintext. End-to-end encryption was only fully implemented in April 2016 after a two-year process.

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• A Wired report noted the attack was able to inject malware via calls to the targeted phone, even if the user did not answer the call.

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• In August 2022, WhatsApp launched an integration with JioMart, available only to users in India.

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• In January 2021, WhatsApp announced a controversial new privacy policy allowing WhatsApp to share data with its parent company, Facebook.

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• In 2022, WhatsApp added the ability for users to turn off their online status.
• In September 2019, WhatsApp was criticized for its implementation of a ‘delete for everyone’ feature.

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• They link to and sync with WhatsApp actively running on a supported primary phone.

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About this app

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• This would give them some context for why they are important, and that will lead them to pay for more services like this – or so the hope goes.

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• Similar to voice messages, this feature allows users to record and send short videos directly in a chat.

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• In 2023, WhatsApp replaced the Electron-based apps with native versions for their respective platforms.

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• The app collected data on who the users contacted and how often, and when and how they were using the app.

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• On October 14, 2021, WhatsApp rolled out end-to-end encryption for backups on Android and iOS.
• In February 2017, WhatsApp reached 200 million monthly active users in India.

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However, the WhatsApp privacy policy does not apply in the EU, since it violates the principles of GDPR. In August 2014, WhatsApp was the most popular messaging app in the world, with more than 600 million users. By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over 30 billion messages every day.

India

In November 2020, UPI payments via WhatsApp were initially restricted to 20 million users, and to 100 million users in April 2022, and became generally available to everyone in August 2022. On October 14, 2021, WhatsApp rolled out end-to-end encryption for backups on Android and iOS. Visual effects also became available, adding visual filters to a user’s video feed.

Version 25.33.73

Both Telegram and Signal in particular were reported to get registration spikes during WhatsApp outages and controversies. Since the complete roll out of this feature, users cannot check old messages before this period on the Web version anymore. In January 2021, WhatsApp announced a controversial new privacy policy allowing WhatsApp to share data with its parent company, Facebook.

Sending and receiving WhatsApp messages from your PC

• In July 2025, WhatsApp stopped developing the Windows UWP-based app due to poor support and deprecation of the UWP framework by Microsoft.

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• This allows users to send messages between other messaging apps and WhatsApp while maintaining end-to-end encryption.

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• In November 2023, WhatsApp added a “voice chat” feature for groups with more than 32 members.
• Visual effects also became available, adding visual filters to a user’s video feed.

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• This ability (named multi-device support) began testing in July 2021 and rolled out to all users in April 2023.

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• When a user deletes media for everyone, WhatsApp does not delete images saved in the iOS camera roll and so those users are able to keep the images.

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According to a white paper that was released along with the announcement, WhatsApp messages are encrypted with the Signal Protocol. The company also announced plans to implement reactions, the ability for administrators to delete messages in groups and voice calls up to 32 participants. In April 2023, the app rolled out a feature that would allow account access across multiple phones, in a shift that would make it more like competitors. Now, the feature is also made available to iOS users, allowing them to link up to four iPhones. The web client was not standalone, and required the user’s phone to stay on and connected to the internet. Since then, linked devices support has expanded and more information is written in the Platform Support part of this article.

Data Not Linked to You

As of 2025, the software requires at least Android version 5.0 or iOS version 15.1 respectively. WhatsApp also introduced chat filters, allowing users to sort their chats by All, Unread or Groups. This was implemented only on Samsung phones, with plans to expand to Android and iOS “soon”.
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Status Saver Video Photo Save

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Once again, the block was lifted following an appeal, after less than 24 hours. On May 9, 2014, the government of Iran announced that it had proposed to block the access to WhatsApp service to Iranian residents. WhatsApp is owned by Meta, whose main social media service Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009. In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had Lucky Friends casino been completely blocked in China. According to WhatsApp, the exploit “targeted at least 100 human-rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society” among a total of 1,400 users in 20 countries. Higher usage was reported by frontline clinical staff to keep up with care needs, even though NHS trust policies do not permit their use.
At that point WhatsApp was adding about 25 million new users every month, or 833,000 active users per day. The organization reported a massive drop-off in traffic for the blocked services, though the country’s government made no official statements about the block. In May 2019, WhatsApp was attacked by hackers who installed spyware on a number of victims’ smartphones. A Wired report noted the attack was able to inject malware via calls to the targeted phone, even if the user did not answer the call. In January 2022, an unsealed surveillance application revealed that WhatsApp started tracking seven users from China and Macau in November 2021, based on a request from US DEA investigators.
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Murders in India

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Both airlines had previously launched customer services on the Facebook Messenger platform. Koum updated WhatsApp so that everyone in the user’s network would be notified when a user’s status changed. WhatsApp Desktop is the official WhatsApp client for Windows that lets you use this popular instant messaging tool from the comfort of your desktop. At your disposal are exactly the same features and tools as in the mobile apps. In February 2017, WhatsApp reached 200 million monthly active users in India. On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages.