 | |
| Original author(s) | Brian Acton, Jan Koum |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Meta Platforms, Will Cathcart (Head of WhatsApp)<ref>Horwitz, Jeff (February 12, 2020). "As WhatsApp Tops 2 Billion Users, Its Boss Vows to Defend Encryption". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on March 17, 2020. Retrieved April 2, 2020.</ref><ref name=WashingtonPostWhatsAppPushback>Cathcart, Will. "Why WhatsApp is pushing back on NSO Group hacking". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.</ref> |
| Initial release | February 2009 |
| Repository |
|
| Written in | Erlang<ref name="fastcompany">O'Connell, Ainsley (February 21, 2014). "Inside Erlang, The Rare Programming Language Behind WhatsApp's Success". Fast Company. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2017.</ref> |
| Engine | |
| Operating system | Android, iOS, iPadOS, KaiOS, macOS, Windows, Windows Phone, Wear OS, Web, Meta Quest (The latter two require one-time verification from the mobile app client.) |
| Size | 183.7 MB (iOS)<ref>"WhatsApp Messenger". App Store. Archived from the original on April 30, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2021.</ref> 78.6 MB (Android)<ref>"WhatsApp Messenger APKs". APKMirror. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.</ref> |
| Available in | 40 (iOS) and 60 (Android)<ref>"WhatsApp Help Center - How to change WhatsApp's language". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved March 26, 2021.</ref> languages |
| Type | Instant messaging, VoIP |
| License | Proprietary software with EULA "European Region"<ref>"WhatsApp". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2023. Retrieved June 23, 2022.</ref> "others"<ref>"WhatsApp Business Terms of Service". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on August 5, 2023. Retrieved June 23, 2022.</ref> |
WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta.<ref name="metz-wired">Metz, Cade (April 5, 2016). "Forget Apple vs. the FBI: WhatsApp Just Switched on Encryption for a Billion People". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on April 9, 2017. Retrieved May 13, 2016.</ref> It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages,<ref>"Features". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on May 28, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2019.</ref> make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content.<ref>Voice calling, March 12, 2015, archived from the original on March 17, 2015, retrieved March 16, 2015</ref><ref name="WhatsApp's Voice Calling">"WhatsApp Voice Calling". Forbes. April 4, 2015. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.</ref> WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers.<ref>"WhatsApp Desktop Client for Windows & Mac Is Only Second Best". MakeUseOf. February 20, 2018. Archived from the original on February 27, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.</ref> The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up.<ref>"WhatsApp FAQ – Using one WhatsApp account on multiple phones, or with multiple phone numbers". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on May 10, 2018. Retrieved May 9, 2018.</ref> In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client.<ref>"There's a new version of WhatsApp". The Independent. January 19, 2018. Archived from the original on August 5, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.</ref><ref>Armstrong, Paul. "How To Know If Your Business Should Use The New WhatsApp Business App". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.</ref>
The service was created by WhatsApp Inc. of Mountain View, California, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion.<ref name="wsj20140220">Albergotti, Reed; MacMillan, Douglas; Rusli, Evelyn M. (February 20, 2014). "Facebook to Pay $19 Billion for WhatsApp". The Wall Street Journal. pp. A1, A6. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on October 2, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.</ref><ref name="fb-buyout">"Facebook to Acquire WhatsApp" (Press release). February 19, 2014. Archived from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2014.</ref> It became the world's most popular messaging application by 2015,<ref name="Metz-2016-04-05a"/><ref>Sun, Leo (September 11, 2015). "Facebook Inc.'s WhatsApp Hits 900 Million Users: What Now?". The Motley Fool. Archived from the original on October 14, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.</ref> and had more than 2 billion users worldwide by February 2020.<ref>"WhatsApp Blog". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on February 14, 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2020.</ref> By 2016, it had become the primary means of Internet communication in regions including Latin America, the Indian subcontinent, and large parts of Europe and Africa.<ref name="Metz-2016-04-05a">Metz, Cade (April 5, 2016). "Forget Apple vs. the FBI: WhatsApp Just Switched on Encryption for a Billion People". Wired. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016.</ref>
History
2009–2014
WhatsApp was founded in February 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, former employees of Yahoo!. A month earlier, after Koum purchased an iPhone, he and Acton decided to create an app for the App Store. The idea started off as an app that would display statuses in a phone's Contacts menu, showing if a person was at work or on a call.<ref name="rags" />
Their discussions often took place at the home of Koum's Russian friend Alex Fishman in West San Jose. They realized that to take the idea further, they would need an iPhone developer. Fishman visited RentACoder.com, found Russian developer Igor Solomennikov, and introduced him to Koum.<ref name="rags" group=""></ref>
Koum named the app WhatsApp to sound like "what's up". On February 24, 2009, he incorporated<ref name="Article of Incorporation">"Article of Incorporation on California's Secretary Of State website". February 24, 2009. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved December 20, 2020.</ref> WhatsApp Inc. in California. However, when early versions of WhatsApp kept crashing, Koum considered giving up and looking for a new job. Acton encouraged him to wait for a "few more months".<ref name="rags">Olsen, Parmy (February 2, 2014). "Exclusive: The Rags-To-Riches Tale Of How Jan Koum Built WhatsApp Into Facebook's New $19 Billion Baby". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2015.</ref>
In June 2009, when the app had been downloaded by only a handful of Fishman's Russian-speaking friends, Apple launched push notifications, allowing users to be pinged even when not using the app.
Koum updated WhatsApp so that everyone in the user's network would be notified when a user's status changed. This new facility, to Koum's surprise, was used by users to ping "each other with jokey custom statuses like, 'I woke up late' or 'I'm on my way.'"<ref name="rags" group=""></ref>
Fishman said "At some point it sort of became instant messaging".<ref name="rags" group=""></ref>
WhatsApp 2.0, released for iPhone in August 2009, featured a purpose-designed messaging component; the number of active users suddenly increased to 250,000.
Although Acton was working on another startup idea, he decided to join the company.<ref name="History" /> In October 2009, Acton persuaded five former friends at Yahoo! to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and Acton became a co-founder and was given a stake. He officially joined WhatsApp on November 1.<ref name="History" /> Koum then hired a friend in Los Angeles, Chris Peiffer, to develop a BlackBerry version, which arrived two months later.<ref name="History" /> Subsequently, WhatsApp for Symbian OS was added in May 2010, and for Android OS in August 2010.<ref>Sawers, Paul (August 27, 2015). "Three-quarters of WhatsApp users are on Android, 22% on iOS (study)". Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved May 7, 2021.</ref> In 2010 Google made multiple acquisition offers for WhatsApp, which were all declined.<ref name="Neeraj">Neeraj Arora (July 3, 2020). Neeraj Arora on learnings from his WhatsApp journey. Accel India. Event occurs at 19m. Archived from the original on February 28, 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2020.</ref>
To cover the cost of sending verification texts to users, WhatsApp was changed from a free service to a paid one. In December 2009, the ability to send photos was added to the iOS version. By early 2011, WhatsApp was one of the top 20 apps in the U.S. Apple App Store.<ref name="History" />
In April 2011, Sequoia Capital invested about $8 million for more than 15% of the company, after months of negotiation by Sequoia partner Jim Goetz.<ref>Levy, Ari (February 19, 2014). "Sequoia Said to Reap $3.5 Billion in Deal". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved June 16, 2016.</ref><ref>McBride, Sarah (February 21, 2014). "With WhatsApp deal, Sequoia Capital burnishes reputation". Reuters. Archived from the original on May 21, 2017. Retrieved June 16, 2016.</ref><ref>Wauters, Robin (April 8, 2011). "Sequoia Invests $8 Million In Messaging App Maker WhatsApp". TechCrunch.com. Archived from the original on May 4, 2017. Retrieved June 16, 2016.</ref>
By February 2013, WhatsApp had about 200 million active users and 50 staff members. Sequoia invested another $50 million, and WhatsApp was valued at $1.5 billion.<ref name="History"/> Some time in 2013<ref>Vengurlekar, Ankit (November 15, 2016). "Why WhatsApp's Global Launch of Video Calling in India Is Big". The Quint. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.</ref> WhatsApp acquired Santa Clara-based startup SkyMobius, the developers of Vtok,<ref>"SkyMobius: Voice messaging app developer". tracxn.com. December 19, 2019. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)</ref> a video and voice calling app.<ref>"Vtok". Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021 – via Twitter.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)</ref>
In a December 2013 blog post, WhatsApp claimed that 400 million active users used the service each month.<ref>Koum, Jan (December 19, 2013). "400 Million Stories". WhatsApp Blog. WhatsApp. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2014.</ref> The year 2013 ended with $148 million in expenses, of which $138 million in losses.<ref>"Exhibit 99.1 AuditedWhatsAppIncFY13". sec.gov. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2023.</ref>
2014–2015
On February 19, 2014, one year after a venture capital financing round at a $1.5 billion valuation,<ref>Tsotsis, Alexia (February 22, 2014). "WhatsApp Was Valued At ~$1.5B In Final Round Before Sale". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2014.</ref> Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms) announced it was acquiring WhatsApp for US$19 billion, its largest acquisition to date.<ref name="fb-buyout" /> At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-capital-backed company in history.<ref name="wsj20140220" /> Sequoia Capital received an approximate 5,000% return on its initial investment.<ref>Neal, Ryan W. (February 20, 2014). "WhatsApp Investors Make Billions From Facebook Acquisition: Sequoia Capital Sees 50x Return on $1.3 Billion Investment". International Business Times. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved June 16, 2016.</ref> Facebook, which was advised by Allen & Co, paid $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and, advised by Morgan Stanley, an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units granted to WhatsApp's founders Koum and Acton.<ref>"WhatsApp's Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg News. February 20, 2014. Archived from the original on February 20, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2014.</ref> Employee stock was scheduled to vest over four years subsequent to closing.<ref name="fb-buyout" /> Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss of service, leading to anger across social media.<ref>Dassanayake, Dion (February 23, 2014). "Twitter outrage as users claim WhatsApp has gone down days after Facebook purchase". Daily Express. Archived from the original on June 8, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2014.</ref>
The acquisition was influenced by the data provided by Onavo, Facebook's research app for monitoring competitors and trending usage of social activities on mobile phones, as well as startups that were performing "unusually well".<ref>Morris, Betsy; Seetharaman, Deepa (August 9, 2017). "The New Copycats: How Facebook Squashes Competition From Startups". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on January 7, 2021. Retrieved August 15, 2017.</ref><ref>"The New Copycats: How Facebook Squashes -2-". Fox Business. August 9, 2017. Archived from the original on December 19, 2017. Retrieved August 15, 2017.</ref><ref>"Facebook knew about Snap's struggles months before the public". Engadget. August 13, 2017. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2017.</ref>
The acquisition caused many users to try, or move to, other message services. Telegram claimed that it acquired 8 million new users;<ref>Tsotsis, Alexia (February 25, 2014). "Telegram Saw 8M Downloads After WhatsApp Got Acquired". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2014.</ref> and Line, 2 million.<ref>Lomas, Natasha (February 25, 2014). "Line saw 2m new users after the outage of Whatsapp". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2014.</ref>
At a keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp was closely related to the Internet.org vision.<ref name="techcrunch-whatsapp-io">Lunden, Ingrid (February 24, 2014). "WhatsApp Is Actually Worth More Than $19B, Says Facebook's Zuckerberg, And It Was Internet.org That Sealed The Deal". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on February 25, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2014.</ref><ref>Fitzsimmons, Michelle (February 24, 2014). "Mark Zuckerberg: WhatsApp is worth more than $19 billion". TechRadar. Archived from the original on February 27, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2014.</ref> A TechCrunch article said about Zuckerberg's vision:
The idea, he said, is to develop a group of basic internet services that would be free of charge to use – "a 911 for the internet". These could be a social networking service like Facebook, a messaging service, maybe search and other things like weather. Providing a bundle of these free of charge to users will work like a gateway drug of sorts – users who may be able to afford data services and phones these days just don't see the point of why they would pay for those data services. 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.<ref name=techcrunch-whatsapp-io />
Three days after announcing the Facebook purchase, Koum said they were working to introduce voice calls. He also said that new mobile phones would be sold in Germany with the WhatsApp brand, and that their ultimate goal was to be on all smartphones.<ref>"WhatsApp permitirá llamadas de voz". Expansión (in español). February 24, 2014. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2014.</ref>
In August 2014, WhatsApp was the most popular messaging app in the world, with more than 600 million users.<ref name="Parmy Olsen">Olsen, Parmy (August 25, 2014). "WhatsApp Hits 600 Million Active Users, Founder Says". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 29, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2014.</ref> By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over 30 billion messages every day.<ref>Kim, Eugene (January 7, 2015). "WhatsApp's Insane Growth Continues: 100 Million New Users in 4 Months". Business Insider. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.</ref> In April 2015, Forbes predicted that between 2012 and 2018, the telecommunications industry would lose $386 billion because of "over-the-top" services like WhatsApp and Skype.<ref>Olsen, Parmy (April 7, 2015). "Facebook's Phone Company: WhatsApp Goes To The Next Level With Its Voice Calling Service". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2015.</ref> That month, WhatsApp had over 800 million users.<ref>Seetharaman, Deepa (April 17, 2015). "WhatsApp Hits 800 Million Users — 1 Billion by Year-End?". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved April 18, 2015.</ref><ref>Ralph, Nate (April 18, 2015). "WhatsApp touts 800M monthly active users". CNET. Archived from the original on April 19, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.</ref> By September 2015, it had grown to 900 million;<ref name="usatoday.com">Guynn, Jessica (September 4, 2015). "Facebook's WhatsApp hits 900 million users, aims for 1 billion". USA Today. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.</ref> and by February 2016, one billion.<ref name="Statt-2016-02-01">Statt, Nick (February 1, 2016). "WhatsApp has grown to 1 billion users". The Verge. Vox Media, Inc. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2016.</ref>
On November 30, 2015, the Android WhatsApp client made links to messaging service Telegram unclickable and uncopyable.<ref name="techcrunch-re-Telegram">Lomas, Natasha (December 1, 2015). "WhatsApp Is Blocking Links To Rival App Telegram On Android". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on December 6, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2015.</ref><ref name="verge-re-Telegram">Brandom, Russell (November 30, 2015). "WhatsApp is blocking links to a competing messenger app". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2015.</ref><ref name="TelegramAndroidPolice">Lobao, Martim (December 1, 2015). "[Update: Smoking Gun] WhatsApp Is Blocking Telegram Links In Its Android App". Android Police. Archived from the original on September 9, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2015.</ref> Multiple sources confirmed that it was intentional, not a bug,<ref name="TelegramAndroidPolice" /> and that it had been implemented when the Android source code that recognized Telegram URLs had been identified.<ref name="TelegramAndroidPolice" /> (The word "telegram" appeared in WhatsApp's code.<ref name="TelegramAndroidPolice" />) Some considered it an anti-competitive measure;<ref name="techcrunch-re-Telegram" /><ref name="verge-re-Telegram" /><ref name="TelegramAndroidPolice" /> WhatsApp offered no explanation.
2016–2019
On January 18, 2016, WhatsApp's co-founder Jan Koum announced that it would no longer charge users a $1 annual subscription fee, in an effort to remove a barrier faced by users without payment cards.<ref name="Fried-18-January-2016 b">Fried, Ina (January 18, 2016). "Facebook's Whatsapp is Now Free". Re Code. Vox Media, Inc. Archived from the original on May 19, 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2016.</ref><ref name="wsj-18-January-2016 2">Drozdiak, Natalia (January 18, 2016). "Whatsapp to Drop Subscription Fee". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2016.</ref> He also said that the app would not display any third-party ads, and that it would have new features such as the ability to communicate with businesses.<ref name="Statt-2016-02-01"/><ref name="Phonearena-18-January-2016">"Finally! Whatsapp removes $1 annual subscription fee". Phonearena.com. Phone Arena. January 18, 2016. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018.</ref>
On May 18, 2017, the European Commission announced that it was fining Facebook €110 million for "providing misleading information about WhatsApp takeover" in 2014. The Commission said that in 2014 when Facebook acquired the messaging app, it "falsely claimed it was technically impossible to automatically combine user information from Facebook and WhatsApp." However, in the summer of 2016, WhatsApp had begun sharing user information with its parent company, allowing information such as phone numbers to be used for targeted Facebook advertisements. Facebook acknowledged the breach, but said the errors in their 2014 filings were "not intentional".<ref name="EU-commission-fined-fb">"Facebook fined €110m by European Commission over WhatsApp deal" (PDF). European Commission. May 18, 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 11, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2020.</ref>
In September 2017, WhatsApp's co-founder Brian Acton left the company to start a nonprofit group,<ref>Russell, Jon (September 13, 2017). "WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton is leaving to start a non-profit". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.</ref> later revealed as the Signal Foundation, which developed the WhatsApp competitor Signal.<ref>Greenberg, Andy (February 21, 2018). "WhatsApp Co-Founder Puts $50M Into Signal To Supercharge Encrypted Messaging". Wired. Archived from the original on September 15, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.</ref> He explained his reasons for leaving in an interview with Forbes a year later.<ref>Acton, Brian (September 26, 2018). "Exclusive: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton Gives The Inside Story On #DeleteFacebook And Why He Left $850 Million Behind". Forbes (Interview). Interviewed by Parmy Olson. Archived from the original on May 2, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2022.</ref> WhatsApp also announced a forthcoming business platform to enable companies to provide customer service at scale,<ref>"Building for People, and Now Businesses". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on September 8, 2017. Retrieved September 17, 2017.</ref> and airlines KLM and Aeroméxico announced their participation in the testing.<ref>Garcia, Marisa (September 5, 2017). "KLM claims airline first with WhatsApp Business Platform". Phocuswire. Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2020.</ref><ref>"Aeroméxico te atenderá por WhatsApp durante 2018". Forbes México (in español). October 26, 2017. Archived from the original on July 2, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.</ref><ref>Redacción (October 27, 2017). "Podrás hacer 'check in' y consultar tu vuelo con Aeroméxico a través de WhatsApp". HuffPost. Archived from the original on March 10, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.</ref><ref name="whatsapp.com1">"Building for People, and Now Businesses". WhatsApp Blog. September 5, 2017. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.</ref> Both airlines had previously launched customer services on the Facebook Messenger platform.
In January 2018, WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Business for small business use.<ref>Ong, Thuy (January 19, 2018). "WhatsApp launches a separate app for small businesses". The Verge. Archived from the original on January 19, 2018. Retrieved January 19, 2018.</ref>
In April 2018, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum announced he would be leaving the company.<ref>Dwoskin, Elizabeth (April 30, 2018). "WhatsApp founder plans to leave after broad clashes with parent Facebook". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 30, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.</ref> By leaving before November 2018, due to concerns about privacy, advertising, and monetization by Facebook,<ref>Lomas, Natasha (September 26, 2018). "WhatsApp founder, Brian Acton, says Facebook used him to get its acquisition past EU regulators". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on January 7, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2022.</ref> Acton and Koum gave up $1.3 billion in unvested stock options.<ref>Stangel, Luke (June 6, 2018). "WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton, desperate to quit Facebook, reportedly left $1.3 billion in stock options behind". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Archived from the original on February 23, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2022.</ref> Facebook later announced that Koum's replacement would be Chris Daniels.<ref name="Wagner-2018-5-8">Wagner, Kurt (May 8, 2018). "WhatsApp has a new boss: Chris Daniels, the guy who's been running Internet.org". Recode. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.</ref>
On November 25, 2019, WhatsApp announced an investment of $250,000 through a partnership with Startup India to provide 500 startups with Facebook ad credits of $500 each.<ref>"Whatsapp to support Indian startups through ad credits". The Economic Times. November 25, 2019. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2020.</ref>
In December 2019, WhatsApp announced that a new update would lock out any Apple users who hadn't updated to iOS 9 or higher and Samsung, Huawei, Sony and Google users who hadn't updated to version 4.0 by February 1, 2020. The company also reported that Windows Phone operating systems would no longer be supported after December 31, 2019.<ref>"WhatsApp is about to stop working on millions of phones". The Independent. December 10, 2019. Archived from the original on December 12, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.</ref> WhatsApp was announced to be the 3rd most downloaded mobile phone app of the decade 2010–2019.<ref>Miller, Chance (December 17, 2019). "These were the most-downloaded apps and games of the decade". 9to5Mac. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.</ref>
2020-present
In March, WhatsApp partnered with the World Health Organization and UNICEF to provide messaging hotlines for people to get information on the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic.<ref>Singh, Manish (March 18, 2020). "WhatsApp unveils $1M grant, info hub to fight coronavirus rumors". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2020.</ref> In the same month WhatsApp began testing a feature to help users find out more information and context about information they receive to help combat misinformation.<ref name=SearchTheWeb>Singh, Manish (March 21, 2020). "WhatsApp tests new feature to fight misinformation: Search the web". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on December 14, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2020.</ref><ref>"How to do an internet search on forwarded WhatsApp messages | WhatsApp Help Center". Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 19, 2022.</ref><ref>"Search the Web". Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 19, 2022.</ref><ref>"WhatsApp new 'Search the web' feature: How it works". August 4, 202. Archived from the original on September 20, 2022. Retrieved September 19, 2022.</ref>
In January 2021, WhatsApp announced a controversial new Privacy Policy allowing WhatsApp to share data with its parent company, Facebook; users who did not accept by February 8, 2021, would lose access to the app. This led many users to ditch WhatsApp and move to other services such as Signal and Telegram.<ref>"WhatsApp users are increasingly moving to other platforms". January 18, 2021. Archived from the original on May 20, 2023. Retrieved May 20, 2023.</ref> However, Facebook said the WhatsApp policy would not apply in the EU, since it violates the principles of GDPR.<ref name=":2">"WhatsApp Will Delete Your Account If You Don't Agree Sharing Data With Facebook". The Hacker News. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.</ref><ref name=":3">"Mandatory WhatsApp Privacy Policy Update Allows User Data to be Shared With Facebook". MacRumors. January 6, 2021. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2021.</ref> Facing criticism, WhatsApp postponed the update to May 15, 2021,<ref name="Kharpal">Kharpal, Arjun (January 18, 2021). "WhatsApp delays privacy update over user 'confusion' and backlash about Facebook data sharing". CNBC. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.</ref><ref>"WhatsApp loses millions of users after terms update". The Guardian. January 24, 2021. Archived from the original on June 14, 2023. Retrieved January 25, 2021.</ref> but said they had no plans to limit functionality of users, nor nag users who did not approve the new terms.<ref name="effective_date">"About the effective date". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2021.</ref>
On October 4, 2021, Facebook had its worst outage since 2008, which also affected other platforms owned by Facebook, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.<ref>Subin, Samantha (October 4, 2021). "Facebook is suffering its worst outage since 2008". CNBC. Archived from the original on October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref><ref>"Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram suffer worldwide outage". Associated Press News. October 4, 2021. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2021.</ref>
In August 2022, WhatsApp launched an integration with JioMart, available only to users in India. Local users can text special numbers in the app to launch an in-app shopping process, where they can order groceries.<ref>Pierce, David (August 29, 2022). "WhatsApp's super app ambitions are starting to come true in India". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 29, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022.</ref>
Features
In November 2010, a slate of improvements for the iOS version of WhatsApp were released: including the ability to search for messages in your chat history, trimming long videos to a sendable size, the ability to cancel media messages as they upload or download, and previewing photos before sending them.<ref name="Sending Places and Group Icons">"Sending Places and Group Icons". WhatsApp.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.</ref>
In March 2012, WhatsApp improved its location-sharing function, allowing users to share not only their location, but also the location of places, such as restaurants or hotels.<ref name="Sending Places and Group Icons" />
In August 2013, WhatsApp added voice messages to their apps, giving users a way to send short audio recordings directly in their chats.<ref>"Introducing Voice Messages". WhatsApp.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.</ref><ref>Olivarez-Giles, Nathan (August 6, 2013). "WhatsApp adds voice messaging as it hits 300 million monthly active users". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.</ref>
In January 2015, WhatsApp launched a web client that allowed users to scan a QR code with their mobile app, mirroring their chats to their browser. The web client was not standalone, and required the user's phone to stay on and connected to the internet. It was also not available for iOS users on launch, due to limitations from Apple.<ref>Brandom, Russell (January 21, 2015). "WhatsApp launches a web client for Chrome and Android". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.</ref><ref>"WhatsApp Web". WhatsApp.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved May 26, 2023.</ref>
Voice calls between two accounts were added to the app in March and April 2015.<ref>WhatsApp finally adds voice calls for all Android users, iOS coming soon Archived June 12, 2020, at the Wayback Machine – James Vincent, The Verge, March 31, 2015</ref> By June 2016, the company's blog reported more than 100 million voice calls per day were being placed on WhatsApp.<ref>Perez, Sarah (June 24, 2016). "WhatsApp hits 100 million calls per day". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2016.</ref>
On November 10, 2016, WhatsApp launched a beta version of two-factor authentication for Android users, which allowed them to use their email addresses for further protection.<ref>"WhatsApp brings Two-step verification for Android 'beta' users: How to enable". November 11, 2016. Archived from the original on November 11, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2016.</ref> Also in November 2016, Facebook ceased collecting WhatsApp data for advertising in Europe.<ref name="EU-commission-fined-fb" /> Later that month, video calls between two accounts were introduced.<ref>WhatsApp Is Now Rolling Out Video Calling For iPhone, Android And Windows Phone Archived June 12, 2020, at the Wayback Machine – Amit Chowdhry, November 15, 2016</ref>
On February 24, 2017, (WhatsApp's 8th birthday), WhatsApp launched a new Status feature similar to Snapchat and Facebook stories.<ref>"WhatsApp Status: What is This New Snapchat-Like Feature?". February 24, 2017. Archived from the original on February 25, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2017.</ref>
In July 2017, WhatsApp added support for file uploads of all file types, with a limit of 100 MB. Previously between March 2016 and May 2017, only limited file types categorised as images (JPG, PNG, GIF), videos (MP4, AVI), and documents (CSV, DOC/DOCX, PDF, PPT/PPTX, RTF, TXT, XLS/XLSX), were allowed to be shared for file attachments.<ref>"WhatsApp Supports All Kinds Of File Formats Now - Online file conversion blog". August 2, 2017. Archived from the original on November 23, 2023. Retrieved November 23, 2023.</ref><ref>"WhatsApp is rolling out sharing of all file types! - WABetaInfo". June 22, 2017. Archived from the original on November 23, 2023. Retrieved November 23, 2023.</ref>
Later in September 2018, WhatsApp introduced group audio and video call features.<ref>Chowdhry, Amit. "WhatsApp's Group Audio And Video Calling Features Arrive On iPhone And Android". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 20, 2018. Retrieved September 20, 2018.</ref><ref>"WhatsApp group video call feature finally rolls out; step by step guide for beginners". businesstoday.in. June 21, 2018. Archived from the original on September 20, 2018. Retrieved September 20, 2018.</ref> In October, the "Swipe to Reply" option was added to the Android beta version, 16 months after it was introduced for iOS.<ref>Singh, Jagmeet (October 3, 2018). "WhatsApp for Android Gets 'Swipe to Reply' Gesture Support; Ability to Download External Sticker Packs Tipped". NDTV. Archived from the original on October 7, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018.</ref>
On October 25, 2018, WhatsApp announced support for Stickers. But unlike other platforms WhatsApp requires third-party apps to add Stickers to WhatsApp.<ref>"Introducing Stickers". October 25, 2018. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2020.</ref>
In October 2019, WhatsApp officially launched a new fingerprint app-locking feature for Android users.<ref>"WhatsApp Brings Fingerprint Lock Feature to Android, Months After iPhone". NDTV Gadgets 360. October 31, 2019. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved September 16, 2020.</ref>
In early 2020, WhatsApp launched its "dark mode" for iPhone and Android devices – a new design consisting of a darker palette.<ref>March 2020, Cat Ellis 04. "How to get WhatsApp dark mode". TechRadar. Archived from the original on March 7, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)</ref>
In October 2020, WhatsApp rolled out a feature allowing users to mute both individuals and group chats forever. The mute options are "8 hours", "1 week", and "Always". The "Always" option replaced the "1 year" option that was originally part of the settings.<ref>"Whatsapp on Twitter". October 2020. Archived from the original on October 23, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020 – via Twitter.</ref><ref>New feature, (October 23, 2020) (October 24, 2020). "You can now mute a WhatsApp chat forever". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)</ref>
In March 2021, WhatsApp started rolling out support for third-party animated stickers, initially in Iran, Brazil and Indonesia,<ref>"Rolling out possibility to import animated sticker packs". GitHub. March 1, 2021. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2020.</ref> then worldwide.<ref>"Animated stickers enabled worldwide". GitHub. March 2, 2021. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2020.</ref>
In July 2021, WhatsApp announced forthcoming support for sending uncompressed images and videos in 3 options: Auto, Best Quality and Data Saver,<ref>Porter, Jon (July 9, 2021). "WhatsApp will let you send images and videos in their 'best quality'". The Verge. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2021.</ref> and end-to-end encryption for backups stored in Facebook's cloud.<ref>Lawler, Richard (July 16, 2021). "WhatsApp tests encrypted cloud backups on Android". The Verge. Archived from the original on July 17, 2021. Retrieved July 17, 2021.</ref> The company was also testing multi-device support, allowing Computer users to run WhatsApp without an active phone session.<ref>Lawler, Richard (July 14, 2021). "WhatsApp multi-device beta allows four devices at once even without a phone". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 17, 2021. Retrieved July 18, 2021.</ref>
In August 2021, WhatsApp launched a feature that allows chat history to be transferred between mobile operating systems. This was implemented only on Samsung phones, with plans to expand to Android and iOS "soon".<ref>"WhatsApp gains the ability to transfer chat history between mobile operating systems". TechCrunch. August 11, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2021.[permanent dead link]</ref>
WhatsApp has the facility to hide users' online status ("Last Seen"). In December 2021, WhatsApp changed the default setting from "everyone" to only people in the user's contacts or who have been conversed with ("nobody" is also an option).<ref>Roth, Emma (December 13, 2021). "WhatsApp will hide your 'last seen' status from strangers by default". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 20, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.</ref>
In April 2022, WhatsApp announced undated plans to roll out a Communities feature allowing several group chats to exist in a shared space, getting unified notifications and opening up smaller discussion groups. The company also announced plans to implement reactions, the ability for administrators to delete messages in groups and voice calls up to 32 participants.<ref>"WhatsApp announces long-awaited Reactions and Community features". 9to5Mac. April 14, 2022. Archived from the original on April 15, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022.</ref>
In May 2022, the file upload limit was raised from 100 MB to 2 GB, and maximum group size increased to 512 members.<ref>"WhatsApp gets 2GB file sharing, 512 people groups". The Express Tribune. May 7, 2022. Archived from the original on May 7, 2022. Retrieved May 8, 2022.</ref>
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. Messages would still be end-to-end encrypted.<ref>"WhatsApp just added this long-requested feature". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved April 28, 2023.</ref> WhatsApp officially rolled out the Companion mode for Android users, allowing you to link up to five Android phones to a single account. Now, the feature is also made available to iOS users, allowing them to link up to four iPhones.<ref>"WhatsApp rolls out Companion mode for iOS, you can link up to four iPhones". gsmarena.com. May 30, 2023. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved May 31, 2023.</ref>
In May 2023, WhatsApp allowed users to edit messages, aligning itself with competitors such as Telegram and Signal which already offered this feature. According to the company, messages could be edited within a 15-minute window after being sent. Edited messages were tagged as "edited" to inform recipients that the content had been modified.<ref>"WhatsApp to allow users to edit messages within 15 minutes". BBC News. May 23, 2023. Archived from the original on May 23, 2023. Retrieved May 23, 2023.</ref> WhatsApp has rolled out a feature called 'Voice Status Updates', which allows users to record voice notes and share them as their status on the app.<ref>"WhatsApp will now let you share voice status, here's how to post one". Business Standard. May 31, 2023. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023. Retrieved May 31, 2023.</ref>
In June 2023, a feature called WhatsApp Channels was launched which allows content creators, public figures and organizations to send newsletter-like broadcasts to large numbers of users. Unlike messages in groups or private chats, channels are not end-to-end encrypted.<ref>Pierce, David (June 8, 2023). "WhatsApp's new Channels feature brings social media to your messaging app". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 9, 2023. Retrieved June 9, 2023.</ref> Channels were initially only available to users in Colombia and Singapore, then later Egypt, Chile, Malaysia, Morocco, Ukraine, Kenya and Peru before becoming widely available in September 2023.<ref>Mehta, Ivan (June 8, 2023). "WhatsApp launches Channels feature for broadcast messages". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.</ref><ref>"Meta introduces broadcast tool Channels on WhatsApp". Reuters. June 8, 2023. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2023.</ref><ref>Mathur, Chandraveer (September 13, 2023). "WhatsApp Channels are ready for prime time". Android Police. Archived from the original on September 16, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.</ref><ref>Wright, Arol (July 25, 2023). "WhatsApp Channels slowly begins its international spread". Android Police. Archived from the original on September 13, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.</ref>
In July 2023, video messages were added to WhatsApp. Similar to voice messages, this feature allows users to record and send short videos directly in a chat. This lets users share videos of themselves more quickly, and without adding anything to their device's gallery. Currently, video messages are limited to 60 seconds.<ref>"Introducing Instant Video Messages". WhatsApp.com. Archived from the original on August 21, 2023. Retrieved August 21, 2023.</ref><ref>Porter, Jon (July 27, 2023). "WhatsApp adds a quicker way to send short videos to your friends". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 21, 2023. Retrieved August 21, 2023.</ref>
In October 2023, support for logging in to multiple accounts was added, allowing users to switch between different WhatsApp accounts in the same app. They also introduced passkey support, where a user can verify their login with on-device biometrics, rather than SMS. Text formatting options like code blocks, quote blocks, and bulleted lists and became available for the first time. <ref>Mathur, Chandraveer (October 27, 2023). "Here's everything WhatsApp changed in October 2023". Android Police. Archived from the original on October 29, 2023. Retrieved October 31, 2023.</ref>
In November 2023, WhatsApp added a "voice chat" feature for groups with more than 32 members. Unlike their 32-person group calls, starting a voice chat doesn't call all group members directly; they instead receive a notification to join the voice chat.<ref>Porter, Jon (November 13, 2023). "WhatsApp is adding a new way to voice chat with large groups". The Verge. Archived from the original on November 14, 2023. Retrieved November 14, 2023.</ref> WhatsApp also began rolling out support for sending login codes to a linked email address, rather than via SMS.<ref>WABetaInfo (November 21, 2023). "WhatsApp for iOS 23.24.70: what's new?". WABetaInfo. Archived from the original on November 21, 2023. Retrieved November 22, 2023.</ref> In a later update on November 30, WhatsApp added a Secret Code feature, which allows those who use locked chats to enter a unique password that hides those chats from view when unlocking the app.<ref>"Introducing Secret Code for Chat Lock". WhatsApp.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.</ref><ref>Roth, Emma (November 30, 2023). "WhatsApp now lets you hide your locked chats behind a secret code". The Verge. Archived from the original on November 30, 2023. Retrieved December 1, 2023.</ref>
In December 2023, WhatsApp's "View Once" feature expanded to include voice messages. Voice messages sent this way are deleted after the recipient listens to them the first time.<ref>"Voice messages just got more private". WhatsApp.com. Archived from the original on December 14, 2023. Retrieved December 14, 2023.</ref><ref>Porter, Jon (December 7, 2023). "WhatsApp is rolling out self-destructing voice messages". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 14, 2023. Retrieved December 14, 2023.</ref>
Platform support
Platform history
After months at beta stage, the official first release of WhatsApp for iOS launched in November 2009. In January 2010, support for BlackBerry smartphones was added; and subsequently for Symbian OS in May 2010, and for Android OS in August 2010. In August 2011, a beta for Nokia's non-smartphone OS Series 40 was added. A month later, support for Windows Phone was added, followed by BlackBerry 10 in March 2013.<ref>"WhatsApp messenger for BlackBerry – Free Download". GetSpool – Jailbreak Tweaks, iOS News. May 22, 2015. Archived from the original on June 25, 2014. Retrieved June 12, 2014.</ref> In April 2015, support for Samsung's Tizen OS was added.<ref>Ash (April 9, 2015). "[Application] NEW Native WhatsApp clients hits the Tizen Store, Goodbye ACL WhatsApp Messenger". Tizen Experts. Archived from the original on October 9, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.</ref> The oldest device capable of running WhatsApp was the Symbian-based Nokia N95 released in March 2007, but support was later discontinued.
In August 2014, WhatsApp released an update, adding support for Android Wear smartwatches.<ref name=":4">Page, Carly (August 5, 2014). "Whatsapp update adds support for Android Wear smartwatches". The Inquirer. Archived from the original on August 11, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)</ref>
On January 21, 2015, WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Web, a browser-based web client that could be used by syncing with a mobile device's connection.<ref>"WhatsApp Web". WhatsApp Blog. January 21, 2015. Archived from the original on January 22, 2015.</ref>
On February 26, 2016, WhatsApp announced they would cease support for BlackBerry (including BlackBerry 10), Nokia Series 40, and Symbian S60,<ref name="Litchfield">Litchfield, Steve (July 11, 2016). "Whatsapp to stop working on Symbian at the end of 2016". All About Windows Phone. All About Symbian. Archived from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved November 12, 2021.</ref><ref name="GSMArenaKalo">Kaloyan (July 11, 2016). "WhatsApp drops support for Symbian, app to stop working on Dec 31". GSMArena. GSMArena.com. Archived from the original on April 12, 2023. Retrieved November 12, 2021.</ref> as well as older versions of Android (2.2), Windows Phone (7.0), and iOS (6), by the end of 2016.<ref>"WhatsApp support for mobile devices". WhatsApp Blog. February 26, 2016. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016.</ref> BlackBerry, Nokia Series 40, and Symbian support was then extended to June 30, 2017.<ref>"WhatsApp support for mobile devices". WhatsApp Blog. Archived from the original on December 31, 2016.</ref> In June 2017, support for BlackBerry and Series 40 was once again extended until the end of 2017, while Symbian was dropped.<ref>"WhatsApp extends Nokia S40, BlackBerry support till end of 2017, drops Symbian support". Nokiapoweruser. June 16, 2017. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018.</ref>
Support for BlackBerry and older (version 8.0) Windows Phone and older (version 6) iOS devices was dropped on January 1, 2018, but was extended to December 2018 for Nokia Series 40.<ref>"WhatsApp FAQ – Support for older operating systems". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2018.</ref> In July 2018, it was announced that WhatsApp would soon be available for KaiOS feature phones.<ref>Snelling, David (July 11, 2018). "The WhatsApp news we have been waiting for will transform these popular phones". Archived from the original on August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2018.</ref><ref>"*Update* KaiOS officially getting Whatsapp". July 5, 2018. Archived from the original on August 3, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2018.</ref>
Android and iPhone
WhatsApp's principal platforms, which are fully supported, are devices supporting mobile telephony running Android, and iPhones.<ref name=iphone />
WhatsApp Web
WhatsApp was officially made available for PCs through a web client, under the name WhatsApp Web,<ref>Woods, Ben (January 21, 2015). "WhatsApp finally launches on the Web". The Next Web. Archived from the original on March 4, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.</ref> in late January 2015 through an announcement made by Koum on his Facebook page: "Our web client is simply an extension of your phone: the web browser mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device—this means all of your messages still live on your phone". As of January 21, 2015, the desktop version was only available to Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone users. Later on, it also added support for iOS, Nokia Series 40, and Nokia S60 (Symbian).<ref>Gander, Kashmira (January 21, 2015). "WhatsApp web: messaging client now available on internet browsers". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 22, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2015.</ref><ref>Tweedie, Steven. "WhatsApp Is Now Accessible On The Web, But iPhone Users Are Out Of Luck". Business Insider. Archived from the original on February 4, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2015.</ref> Previously the WhatsApp user's handset had to be connected to the Internet for the browser application to function but as of an update in October 2021 that is no longer the case.<ref>"WhatsApp Help Center - About linked devices". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.</ref> All major desktop browsers are supported except for Internet Explorer. WhatsApp Web's user interface is based on the default Android one and can be accessed through web.whatsapp.com. Access is granted after the users scan their personal QR code through their mobile WhatsApp application.
There are similar solutions for macOS, such as the open-source ChitChat, previously known as WhatsMac.<ref>stonesam92 (October 2, 2018). "Chit Chat A Mac app wrapper around WhatsApp's web client". GitHub. Archived from the original on July 26, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)</ref><ref>"WhatsApp for Mac". OSXDaily. May 25, 2015. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016.</ref><ref>"ChitChat for Mac". MacUpdate. October 5, 2015. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017.</ref>
In January 2021, the limited Android beta version allowed users to use WhatsApp Web without having to keep the mobile app connected to the Internet. In March 2021, this beta feature was extended to iOS users.<ref>"WhatsApp Messenger beta for iOS 2.21.60.11: what's new?". March 19, 2021. Archived from the original on January 9, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2021.</ref> However, linked devices (using WhatsApp Web, WhatsApp Desktop or Facebook Portal) will become disconnected if people don't use their phone for over 14 days.<ref>"WhatsApp Help Center - About multi-device beta". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2022.</ref> The multi-device beta can only show messages for the last 3 months on the web version, which was not the case without the beta because the web version was syncing with the phone.<ref>"How to Use WhatsApp on Multiple Devices". July 16, 2021. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2021.</ref> Since April 2022, the multi-device beta is integrated by default in WhatsApp and users cannot check old messages on the web version anymore.<ref>"WhatsApp Help Center - About message history on linked devices". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2022.</ref><ref>Archive link showing the end of beta in April 2022 with a redirect in the FAQ page: "About linked devices". Archived from the original on April 5, 2022.</ref>
Windows and Mac
On May 10, 2016, the messaging service was introduced for both Microsoft Windows and macOS operating systems. Support for video and voice calls from desktop clients was later added. Similar to the WhatsApp Web format, the app, which synchronises with a user's mobile device, is available for download on the website. It supported operating systems Windows 8 and OS X 10.10 and higher.<ref name="WAWOS 2">"Introducing WhatsApp's desktop app". WhatsApp Blog. May 10, 2016. Archived from the original on May 11, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2016.</ref><ref>Swanner, Nate (May 11, 2016). "WhatsApp now has an official desktop app for Windows and Mac". The Next Web. Archived from the original on May 11, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2016.</ref><ref>"WhatsApp Desktop on the Mac App Store". Archived from the original on January 3, 2020. Retrieved December 27, 2019.</ref>
In 2023, WhatsApp replaced the Electron based apps with native versions for their respective platforms.<ref>"Faster speeds and improved calling for WhatsApp Desktop". WhatsApp.com. Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. Retrieved November 11, 2023.</ref><ref>"New WhatsApp app for Mac; now with group calling". WhatsApp.com. Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. Retrieved November 11, 2023.</ref> The Windows version is based on UWP while the Mac version is a port of the iOS version using Catalyst technology.
Smartwatches
WhatsApp added support for Android Wear (now called Wear OS) in 2014.<ref name=":4" />
iPad not supported
As of 2023[update], WhatsApp does not have an official iPad client.<ref name="iphone">"WhatsApp Messenger". Archived from the original on March 21, 2020. Retrieved March 24, 2023. Compatibility: iPhone, iOS 12.0 or later
</ref> While the majority of iPhone apps can run on the iPad in an iPhone sized window, WhatsApp was one of the very few apps to be completely unavailable on the iPad due to the "telephony" restriction. In a 2022 interview with The Verge, WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart acknowledged that "[p]eople have wanted an iPad app for a long time" and said that the team would "love to do it."<ref>Heath, Alex (January 28, 2022). "Head of WhatsApp on releasing an iPad app: 'We'd love to do it'". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 8, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2022.</ref> In September 2023, a beta version of WhatsApp was released for iPad. No official release date has been announced.<ref>Vermes, Krystle (September 19, 2023). "WhatsApp is finally working on an official iPad app". Android Police. Archived from the original on October 8, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2023.</ref>
iPad users searching for WhatsApp are shown numerous third-party clients. Several top results have names and logos resembling WhatsApp itself, and some users do not realize they are using a third-party client. Per WhatsApp's policy, using third-party clients can result in the account getting permanently banned.<ref>"Use a third-party WhatsApp client and you could be banned for life". March 5, 2015. Archived from the original on March 21, 2020. Retrieved March 21, 2020.</ref>
Technical
WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP).<ref>Shakal (March 22, 2011). "WhatsApp? Nicht ohne Risiken" [WhatsApp? Not without risks] (World Wide Web log) (in Deutsch). Germany. Archived from the original (Google Translate) on June 26, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2013..</ref> Upon installation, it creates a user account using the user's phone number as the username (Jabber ID: [phone number]@s.whatsapp.net).
WhatsApp software automatically compares all the phone numbers from the device's address book with its central database of WhatsApp users to automatically add contacts to the user's WhatsApp contact list. Previously the Android and Nokia Series 40 versions used an MD5-hashed, reversed-version of the phone's IMEI as password,<ref name="GitHub venomous0x">Team Venomous (venomous0x) (September 29, 2018). "Interface to WhatsApp Messenger" (blog). GitHub. Archived from the original on May 26, 2013. Retrieved January 26, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)</ref> while the iOS version used the phone's Wi-Fi MAC address instead of IMEI.<ref>Amodio, Ezio (September 11, 2012). "Whatsapp – iOS password generation". Italy. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2013.</ref><ref>Granger, Sam (September 5, 2012). "WhatsApp is using IMEI numbers as passwords". Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2013.</ref> A 2012 update implemented generation of a random password on the server side.<ref>"Wassapp login issues" (blog). Lowlevel Studios. December 11, 2012. Archived from the original on December 20, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2013. Wassapp is a PC application developed to be a non-official client for WhatsApp Messenger
</ref> Alternatively a user can send to any contact in the WhatsApp database through the url https://api.whatsapp.com/send/?phone=[phone number] where [phone number] is the number of the contact including the country code.
Some devices using dual SIMs may not be compatible with WhatsApp, though there are unofficial workarounds to install the app.<ref>Emenike, Kelechi (September 16, 2013). "Download WhatsApp on non-compatible Dual-SIM Phones" (blog). NG: ECHO. Archived from the original on October 26, 2013. Retrieved September 29, 2013.</ref>
In February 2015, WhatsApp implemented voice calling, which helped WhatsApp to attract a different segment of the user population.<ref>Chowdhry, Amit (March 26, 2015). "WhatsApp For iOS Will Receive Voice Calling Feature In A Few Weeks". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 9, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2017.</ref><ref>Perez, Sarah (February 2, 2015). "WhatsApp Voice-Calling Feature Spotted In The Wild". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2017.</ref> WhatsApp's voice codec is Opus,<ref name="Register">Leyden, John (October 27, 2015). "WhatsApp laid bare: Info-sucking app's innards probed". The Register. Archived from the original on October 19, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.</ref><ref name="Hazra">Hazra, Sudip; Mateti, Prabhaker (September 13–16, 2017). "Challenges in Android Forensics". In Thampi, Sabu M.; Pérez, Gregorio Martínez; Westphall, Carlos Becker; Hu, Jiankun; Fan, Chun I.; Mármol, Félix Gómez (eds.). Security in Computing and Communications: 5th International Symposium, SSCC 2017. Springer. pp. 286–299 (290). doi:10.1007/978-981-10-6898-0_24. ISBN 9789811068980.</ref><ref name="Srivastava">Srivastava, Saurabh Ranjan; Dube, Sachin; Shrivastaya, Gulshan; Sharma, Kavita (2019). "Smartphone Triggered Security Challenges: Issues, Case Studies and Prevention". In Le, Dac-Nhuong; Kumar, Raghvendra; Mishra, Brojo Kishore; Chatterjee, Jyotir Moy; Khari, Manju (eds.). Cyber Security in Parallel and Distributed Computing: Concepts, Techniques, Applications and Case Studies. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 187–206 (200). doi:10.1002/9781119488330.ch12. ISBN 9781119488057. S2CID 214034702. Archived from the original on December 26, 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2019. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)</ref> which uses the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) and linear predictive coding (LPC) audio compression algorithms.<ref>Valin, Jean-Marc; Maxwell, Gregory; Terriberry, Timothy B.; Vos, Koen (October 2013). High-Quality, Low-Delay Music Coding in the Opus Codec. 135th AES Convention. Audio Engineering Society. arXiv:1602.04845.</ref> WhatsApp uses Opus at 8–16 kHz sampling rates.<ref name="Register" /><ref name="Srivastava" /> On November 14, 2016, WhatsApp video calling for users using Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone devices.<ref>"Whatsapp Video Calling" (blog). November 14, 2016. Archived from the original on November 18, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2016.</ref><ref>Alawadhi, Neha (November 15, 2016). "Whatsapp Video Calling". The Economic Times (News). Archived from the original on November 19, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2016.</ref>
In November 2017, WhatsApp implemented a feature giving users seven minutes to delete messages sent by mistake.<ref>"WhatsApp Now Lets You Delete Messages Sent by Mistake". Smatt Geeks Media. November 1, 2017. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.</ref>
Multimedia messages are sent by uploading the image, audio or video to be sent to an HTTP server and then sending a link to the content along with its Base64 encoded thumbnail, if applicable.<ref>Team Venomous (venomous0x) (November 28, 2012) [May 29, 2012]. "WhatsAPI / README.md" (blog). GitHub. Archived from the original on June 22, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)</ref>
WhatsApp uses a "store and forward" mechanism for exchanging messages between two users. When a user sends a message, it is stored on a WhatsApp server, which tries to forward it to the addressee, and repeatedly requests acknowledgement of receipt. When the message is acknowledged, the server deletes it; if undelivered after 30 days, it is also deleted.<ref>Rathee, Gaurav (June 25, 2015) [June 25, 2015]. "How WhatsApp Works" (blog). Archived from the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved June 25, 2015.</ref>[self-published source?]
End-to-end encryption
On November 18, 2014, Open Whisper Systems announced a partnership with WhatsApp to provide end-to-end encryption by incorporating the encryption protocol used in Signal into each WhatsApp client platform.<ref>Evans, Jon (November 18, 2014). "WhatsApp Partners With Open WhisperSystems To End-To-End Encrypt Billions Of Messages A Day". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 18, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.</ref> Open Whisper Systems said that they had already incorporated the protocol into the latest WhatsApp client for Android, and that support for other clients, group/media messages, and key verification would be coming soon after.<ref name="whispersystems">"Open Whisper Systems partners with WhatsApp to provide end-to-end encryption". Open Whisper Systems. November 18, 2014. Archived from the original on November 18, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014.</ref> WhatsApp confirmed the partnership to reporters, but there was no announcement or documentation about the encryption feature on the official website, and further requests for comment were declined.<ref>Snyder, Benjamin (November 18, 2014). "Facebook's messaging service WhatsApp gets a security boost". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 20, 2014. Retrieved November 21, 2014.</ref> In April 2015, German magazine Heise security used ARP spoofing to confirm that the protocol had been implemented for Android-to-Android messages, and that WhatsApp messages from or to iPhones running iOS were still not end-to-end encrypted.<ref name="Heise-April-2015" /> They expressed the concern that regular WhatsApp users still could not tell the difference between end-to-end encrypted messages and regular messages.<ref name="Heise-April-2015">Scherschel, Fabian A. (April 30, 2015). "Keeping Tabs on WhatsApp's Encryption". Heise Security. Archived from the original on April 30, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2015.</ref>
On April 5, 2016, WhatsApp and Open Whisper Systems announced that they had finished adding end-to-end encryption to "every form of communication" on WhatsApp, and that users could now verify each other's keys.<ref name="Metz-2016-04-05"/><ref>Lomas, Natasha (April 5, 2016). "WhatsApp completes end-to-end encryption rollout". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016. Retrieved April 5, 2016.</ref> Users were also given the option to enable a trust on first use mechanism in order to be notified if a correspondent's key changes.<ref>Budington, Bill (April 7, 2016). "WhatsApp Rolls Out End-To-End Encryption to its Over One Billion Users". Deeplinks Blog. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Archived from the original on September 12, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2016.</ref> According to a white paper that was released along with the announcement, WhatsApp messages are encrypted with the Signal Protocol.<ref name="white-paper">"WhatsApp Encryption Overview – Technical white paper" (PDF). WhatsApp Inc. April 4, 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved April 5, 2016.</ref> WhatsApp calls are encrypted with SRTP, and all client-server communications are "layered within a separate encrypted channel".<ref name="white-paper" />
On October 14, 2021, WhatsApp rolled out end-to-end encryption for backups on Android and iOS. The feature has to be turned on by the user and provides the option to encrypt the backup either with a password or a 64-digit encryption key.<ref>Peters, Jay (October 14, 2021). "Facebook starts rolling out end-to-end encrypted backups to WhatsApp". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 2, 2023. Retrieved October 14, 2021.</ref>
The application can store encrypted copies of the chat messages onto the SD card, but chat messages are also stored unencrypted in the SQLite database file "msgstore.db".<ref>"How to Extract Unencrypted Whatsapp Chat Messages". June 2014. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2022.</ref>
WhatsApp Payments
WhatsApp Payments (marketed as WhatsApp Pay) is a peer-to-peer money transfer feature. The service became generally available in India and Brazil, and in Singapore for WhatsApp Business transactions only.<ref>Mehta, Ivan (April 11, 2023). "WhatsApp users in Brazil can now pay merchants through the app". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved May 16, 2023.</ref><ref>Espósito, Filipe (May 12, 2023). "WhatsApp users in Singapore can now pay merchants directly from the app". 9to5Mac. Archived from the original on May 18, 2023. Retrieved May 16, 2023.</ref>
India
In July 2017, WhatsApp received permission from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enter into partnership with multiple Indian banks,<ref>Mishra, Digbijay (July 11, 2017). "WhatsApp gets nod for UPI payments through multi bank partnerships". The Times of India. Archived from the original on July 12, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2017.</ref> for transactions over Unified Payments Interface (UPI),<ref>Mishra, Digbijay (July 11, 2017). "WhatsApp gets nod for UPI payments". The Times of India. Archived from the original on July 12, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2017.</ref> which relies on mobile phone numbers to make account-to-account transfers.<ref>Russell, Jon (April 4, 2017). "WhatsApp will reportedly launch peer-to-peer payments in India within 6 months". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on July 6, 2017. Retrieved July 11, 2017.</ref> In November 2020, UPI payments via WhatsApp were initially restricted to 20 million users,<ref>Bhargava, Yuthika (November 6, 2020). "WhatsApp payment service goes live in India". The Hindu. Archived from the original on December 15, 2020. Retrieved November 7, 2020.</ref> and to 100 million users in April 2022,<ref>Singh, Manish (April 13, 2022). "WhatsApp permitted to extend payments service to 100 million users in India". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on December 3, 2022.</ref> and became generally available to everyone in August 2022.<ref>"WhatsApp Pay now available to all users in India". Hindustan Times. August 20, 2022. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023.</ref>
Facebook/WhatsApp cryptocurrency project, 2019–2022
On February 28, 2019, The New York Times reported that Facebook was "hoping to succeed where Bitcoin failed" by developing an in-house cryptocurrency that would be incorporated into WhatsApp. The project reportedly involved more than 50 engineers under the direction of former PayPal president David A. Marcus. This 'Facebook coin' would reportedly be a stablecoin pegged to the value of a basket of different foreign currencies.<ref>Popper, Nathaniel; Isaac, Mike (February 28, 2019). "Facebook and Telegram Are Hoping to Succeed Where Bitcoin Failed". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 5, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2019.</ref>
In June 2019, Facebook said that the project would be named Libra, and that a digital wallet named "Calibra" was to be integrated into Facebook and WhatsApp.<ref>Boorstin, Julia (June 18, 2019). "Facebook launches a new cryptocurrency called Libra". CNBC. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.</ref> After financial regulators in many regions raised concerns, Facebook stated that the currency, renamed Diem since December 2020, would require a government-issued ID for verification, and the wallet app would have fraud protection. Calibra was rebranded to Novi in May 2020.<ref>Lecher, Colin (June 18, 2019). "European regulators are already pressing Facebook about its cryptocurrency". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 2, 2023. Retrieved April 22, 2021.</ref><ref>Bursztynsky, Jessica (December 1, 2020). "Facebook-backed Libra Association has been renamed Diem". CNBC. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 21, 2021.</ref><ref>Bursztynsky, Jessica (May 26, 2020). "Facebook renames its service that will let people send Libra digital currency to one another". CNBC. Archived from the original on June 9, 2023. Retrieved April 21, 2021.</ref>
Meta (formerly Facebook) ended its Novi project on September 1, 2022.<ref>"The Novi pilot has ended". Archived from the original on November 6, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2022 – via Facebook.</ref><ref>Vanian, Jonathan (July 1, 2022). "The last remnant of Facebook's crypto project shuts down September 1". CNBC. Archived from the original on May 13, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2022.</ref>
Controversies and criticism
Misinformation
WhatsApp has repeatedly imposed limits on message forwarding in response to the spread of misinformation in countries including India and Australia. The measure, first introduced in 2018 to combat spam, was expanded and remained active in 2021. WhatsApp stated that the forwarding limits had helped to curb the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19.<ref>Russell, Jon (July 20, 2018). "WhatsApp limits message forwarding in bid to reduce spam and misinformation". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2021.</ref><ref>Porter, Jon (April 27, 2020). "WhatsApp says its forwarding limits have cut the spread of viral messages by 70 percent". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 20, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2021.</ref><ref>Taylor, Josh (July 23, 2021). "Facebook forced to limit misinformation spread via WhatsApp amid Sydney lockdown". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2021.</ref>
Murders in India
In India, WhatsApp encouraged people to report messages that were fraudulent or incited violence after lynch mobs in India murdered innocent people because of malicious WhatsApp messages falsely accusing the victims of intending to abduct children.<ref>Bassi, Simi; Sengupta, Joyita (July 8, 2018). "WhatsApp cracks down on fake content after child-kidnap rumours spark killings across India". CBC News. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018.</ref> There were a series of incidents between 2017 and 2020, after which WhatsApp announced changes for Indian users of the platform that labels forwarded messages as such.<ref>Rahman, Shaikh Azizur (July 13, 2018). "'Fake news often goes viral': WhatsApp ads warn India after mob lynchings". The Guardian. Archived from the original on July 30, 2018. Retrieved July 30, 2018.</ref>
2018 elections in Brazil
In an investigation on the use of social media in politics, it was found that WhatsApp was being abused for the spread of fake news in the 2018 presidential elections in Brazil.<ref name="The New York Times 2018">"Opinion – Fake News Is Poisoning Brazilian Politics. WhatsApp Can Stop It". The New York Times. October 17, 2018. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.</ref> It was reported that US$3 million was spent in illegal concealed contributions related to this practice.<ref name="Folha de S.Paulo 2018">"Businessmen Fund WhatsApp Campaign Against PT". Folha de S.Paulo. October 18, 2018. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2018.</ref>
Researchers and journalists called on WhatsApp's parent company, Facebook, to adopt measures similar to those adopted in India and restrict the spread of hoaxes and fake news.<ref name="The New York Times 2018" />
Security and privacy
WhatsApp was initially criticized for its lack of encryption, sending information as plaintext.<ref>Brookehoven, Corey (May 19, 2011). "WhatsApp leaks usernames, telephone numbers and messages | Your Daily Mac". Archived from the original on May 23, 2011. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref> Encryption was first added in May 2012.<ref>"Whatsapp ya cifra los mensajes" [WhatsApp already encrypts messages] (in español). IT Pro. May 11, 2012. Archived from the original on April 8, 2015.</ref><ref>Barrera, David (May 8, 2012). "preliminary protocol inspection shows that @WhatsApp has turned on some kind of encryption in the latest Android version (2.7.7532)". @davidbb. Archived from the original on October 7, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref><ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref> End-to-end encryption was only fully implemented in April 2016 after a two-year process. As of September 2021[update], it is known that WhatsApp makes extensive use of outside contractors and artificial intelligence systems to examine certain user messages, images and videos (those that have been flagged by users as possibly abusive); and turns over to law enforcement metadata including critical account and location information.<ref>Elkind, Peter; Gillum, Jack; Silverman, Craig (September 8, 2021). "How Facebook Undermines Privacy Protections for Its 2 Billion WhatsApp Users". ProPublica. Archived from the original on October 23, 2022. Retrieved November 1, 2021.</ref>
In 2016, WhatsApp was widely praised for the addition of end-to-end encryption and earned a 6 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Secure Messaging Scorecard".<ref>Portnoy, Nate Cardozo, Gennie Gebhart, and Erica (March 26, 2018). "Secure Messaging? More Like A Secure Mess". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)</ref> WhatsApp was criticized by security researchers and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for using backups that are not covered by end-to-end encryption and allow messages to be accessed by third-parties.<ref>Mak, Aaron (June 5, 2018). "How Did the FBI Access Paul Manafort's Encrypted Messages?". Slate. Archived from the original on July 12, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref><ref>Gebhart, Bill Budington and Gennie (October 13, 2016). "Where WhatsApp Went Wrong: EFF's Four Biggest Security Concerns". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Archived from the original on July 31, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref>
In May 2019, a security vulnerability in WhatsApp was found and fixed that allowed a remote person to install spyware by making a call which did not need to be answered.<ref>Tung, Liam. "Update WhatsApp now: Bug lets snoopers put spyware on your phone with just a call". ZDNet. Archived from the original on June 7, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref><ref>Satter, Raphael. "WhatsApp sues Israel's NSO for allegedly helping spies hack phones around the world". U.S. Archived from the original on October 29, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref>
In September 2019, WhatsApp was criticized for its implementation of a 'delete for everyone' feature. iOS users can elect to save media to their camera roll automatically. 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. WhatsApp released a statement saying that "the feature is working properly," and that images stored in the camera roll cannot be deleted due to Apple's security layers.<ref>Doffman, Zak. "WhatsApp Warning For Millions Of iPhone Users As 'Delete For Everyone' Fails To Work". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 24, 2019. Retrieved September 24, 2019.</ref>
In November 2019, WhatsApp released a new privacy feature that let users decide who can add them to groups.<ref>"How To Enable New WhatsApp Feature That Lets You Decide Who Can Add You To Groups". HuffPost India. November 6, 2019. Archived from the original on December 1, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2019.</ref>
In December 2019, WhatsApp confirmed a security flaw that would allow hackers to use a malicious GIF image file to gain access to the recipient's data. When the recipient opened the gallery within WhatsApp, even if not sending the malicious image, the hack is triggered and the device and its contents become vulnerable. The flaw was patched and users were encouraged to update WhatsApp.<ref>Valinsky, Jordan (October 7, 2019). "WhatsApp had a bug that let hackers take over phones with a GIF". CNN Digital. Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2020.</ref><ref>Doffman, Zak. "New WhatsApp Warning: Security Flaw Confirmed—1 Billion Users Told Update Apps Now". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2020.</ref><ref>Osborne, Charlie. "WhatsApp vulnerability exploited through malicious GIFs to hijack chat sessions". ZDNet. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2020.</ref>
On December 17, 2019, WhatsApp fixed a security flaw that allowed cyber attackers to repeatedly crash the messaging application for all members of group chat, which could only be fixed by forcing the complete uninstall and reinstall of the app.<ref>Doffman, Zak. "WhatsApp Update Warning As New 'App Killing' Message Confirmed: Here's What You Need To Know". Forbes. Archived from the original on May 3, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.</ref> The bug was discovered by Check Point in August 2019 and reported to WhatsApp. It was fixed in version 2.19.246 onwards.<ref>"BreakingApp – WhatsApp Crash & Data Loss Bug". Check Point Research. December 17, 2019. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.</ref><ref>Kraus, Rachel (December 17, 2019). "Crisis averted: WhatsApp fixed a lethal security flaw". Mashable. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.</ref>
For security purposes, since February 1, 2020, WhatsApp has been made unavailable on smartphones using legacy operating systems like Android 2.3.7 or older and iPhone iOS 8 or older that are no longer updated by their providers.<ref>"WhatsApp to stop working on millions of phones". BBC News. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on February 3, 2020.</ref>
In April 2020, the NSO Group held its governmental clients accountable for the allegation of human rights abuses by WhatsApp. In its revelation via documents received from court, the group claimed that the lawsuit brought against the company by WhatsApp threatened to infringe on its clients' "national security and foreign policy concerns". However, the company did not reveal names of the end users, which according to a research by Citizen Lab include, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.<ref>"NSO Group points finger at state clients in WhatsApp spying case". The Guardian. April 7, 2020. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.</ref>
On December 16, 2020, a claim that WhatsApp gave Google access to private messages was included in the anti-trust case against the latter. As the complaint was heavily redacted due to being an ongoing case, it did not disclose whether this was alleged tampering with the app's end-to-end encryption, or Google accessing user backups.[clarification needed]<ref>"Prosecutors say Google accessed private WhatsApp messages — but the evidence is thin". The Verge. December 17, 2020. Archived from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2020.</ref>
In January 2021, WhatsApp announced an update to their Privacy Policy which stated that WhatsApp would share user data with Facebook and its "family of companies" beginning February 2021. Previously, users could opt-out of such data sharing, but the new policy removed this option. The new Privacy Policy would not apply within the EU, as it is illegal under the GDPR. Facebook and WhatsApp were widely criticized for this move.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>Goodin, Dan (January 6, 2021). "WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using the app". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2021.</ref> The enforcement of the privacy policy was postponed from February 8 to May 15, 2021,<ref name="Kharpal"/><ref>Statt, Nick (January 15, 2021). "WhatsApp to delay new privacy policy amid mass confusion about Facebook data sharing". The Verge. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved March 15, 2021.</ref> WhatsApp announced they had no plans to limit the functionality of the app for those who did not approve the new terms.<ref name="effective_date" />
On October 15, 2021, WhatsApp announced that it would begin offering an end-to-end encryption service for chat backups, meaning no third party (including both WhatsApp and the cloud storage vendor) would have access to a user's information. This new encryption feature added an additional layer of protection to chat backups stored either on Apple iCloud or Google Drive.<ref>Khalili, Joel (October 15, 2021). "WhatsApp: New encryption feature protects your chat history from prying eyes". TechRadar. Archived from the original on June 4, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2021.</ref>
On November 29, 2021, an FBI document was uncovered by Rolling Stone, revealing that WhatsApp responds to warrants and subpoenas from law enforcement within minutes, providing user metadata to the authorities. The metadata includes the user's contact information and address book.<ref>Kroll, Andy (November 29, 2021). "FBI Document Says the Feds Can Get Your WhatsApp Data — in Real Time". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 14, 2023. Retrieved November 30, 2021.</ref>
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. The app collected data on who the users contacted and how often, and when and how they were using the app. This is reportedly not an isolated occurrence, as federal agencies can use the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to covertly track users without submitting any probable cause or linking a user's number to their identity.<ref>Brewster, Thomas (January 17, 2021). "WhatsApp Ordered To Help U.S. Agents Spy On Chinese Phones—No Explanation Required". Forbes. Archived from the original on August 23, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2021.</ref>
At the beginning of 2022, it was revealed that San Diego-based startup Boldend had developed tools to hack WhatsApp's encryption, gaining access to user data, at some point since the startup's inception in 2017. The vulnerability was reportedly patched in January 2021. Boldend is financed, in part, by Peter Thiel, a notable investor in Facebook.<ref>Brewster, Thomas (February 1, 2022). "Billionaire Facebook Investor Peter Thiel Secretly Funded A 'Cyber Warfare' Startup That Hacked WhatsApp". Forbes. Archived from the original on October 20, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2022.</ref>
In September 2022, a critical security issue in WhatsApp's Android video call feature was reported. An integer overflow bug allowed a malicious user to take full control of the victim's application once a video call between two WhatsApp users was established. The issue was patched on the day it was officially reported.<ref>Page, Carly (September 27, 2022). "WhatsApp fixes 'critical' security bug that put Android phone data at risk". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on June 12, 2023. Retrieved September 30, 2022.</ref>
UK institutions
As of 2023[update] WhatsApp is widely used by government institutions in the UK, although such use is viewed as problematical since it hinders the public, including journalists, obtaining accurate government records when making freedom of information requests.<ref>"Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved September 10, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)</ref>
The information commissioner has said that the use of WhatsApp posed risks for transparency since members of Parliament, government ministers, and officials who wished to avoid scrutiny might use WhatsApp despite there being official channels.<ref>Thomas, Tobi (March 4, 2023). "Whitehall use of WhatsApp poses transparency risks, says data watchdog". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved March 24, 2023.</ref> Transparency campaigners have challenged the practice in court.<ref>Hall, Rachel (March 22, 2022). "UK ministers accused of 'government by WhatsApp' in court". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 6, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023.</ref>
Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government routinely made use of WhatsApp to make decisions on managing the crisis, including on personal rather than government issued devices. When the official inquiry into the pandemic began seeking evidence in May 2023 this presented issues for its ability to gather the material it sought. A personal device of the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had been compromised by a security breach and it was claimed it could not be switched on in order to recover messages.<ref>"COVID inquiry: Government seeks judicial review over order to hand over Boris Johnson WhatsApp messages". Archived from the original on July 21, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023.</ref> Further, the Cabinet Office had claimed that since many messages were not relevant to the inquiry, it only needed to hand over material it had selected as being relevant. The High Court, in a judicial review sought by the Cabinet Office, declared that all documents sought by the inquiry were to be handed over unredacted.<ref>"Government loses court battle over Boris Johnson's Covid WhatsApps". BBC News. July 6, 2023. Archived from the original on November 18, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023.</ref>
In 2018, it was reported that around 500,000 National Health Service (NHS) staff used WhatsApp and other instant messaging systems at work and around 29,000 had faced disciplinary action for doing so. Higher usage was reported by frontline clinical staff to keep up with care needs, even though NHS trust policies do not permit their use.<ref>"NHS staff disciplined due to reliance on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other apps". Practice Business. March 13, 2018. Archived from the original on April 15, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.</ref>
Mods and fake versions
In March 2019, WhatsApp released a guide for users who had installed unofficial modified versions of WhatsApp and warned that it may ban those using unofficial clients.<ref>"WhatsApp to ban users for using fake apps; here's how to migrate back to the official app". businesstoday.in. March 8, 2019. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2019.</ref>
WhatsApp snooping scandal
In May 2019, WhatsApp was attacked by hackers who installed spyware on a number of victims' smartphones.<ref>"WhatsApp Hack Target: I Fear More Victims Are Out There". Forbes. May 14, 2019. Archived from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019.</ref> The hack, allegedly developed by Israeli surveillance technology firm NSO Group, injected malware onto WhatsApp users' phones via a remote-exploit bug in the app's Voice over IP calling functions. 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.<ref>Newman, Lily Hay (May 14, 2019). "How Hackers Broke WhatsApp With Just a Phone Call". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 6, 2019.</ref>
On October 29, WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against NSO Group in a San Francisco court, claiming that the alleged cyberattack violated US laws including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).<ref>"WhatsApp sues Israeli firm NSO over cyberespionage". Agence France-Presse. January 16, 2012. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.</ref> 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.<ref>Satter, Raphael; Culliford, Elizabeth (October 30, 2019). "WhatsApp sues Israel's NSO for allegedly helping spies hack phones around the world". Reuters. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.</ref><ref>Bajak, Frank (October 29, 2019). "Facebook sues Israeli company over WhatsApp spyware". Associated Press News. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.</ref><ref name="WashingtonPostWhatsAppPushback2">Cathcart, Will. "Why WhatsApp is pushing back on NSO Group hacking". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019.</ref> On July 16, 2020, a US federal judge ruled that the lawsuit against NSO group could proceed. NSO Group filed a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed, but the judge denied all of its arguments.<ref>"Federal court rules WhatsApp and Facebook's malware exploit case against NSO Group can proceed". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved July 16, 2020.</ref>
In April 2020, the NSO Group held its governmental clients accountable for the allegation of human rights abuses by WhatsApp. In its revelation via documents received via court, the group claimed that the lawsuit brought against the company by WhatsApp threatened to infringe on its clients' "national security and foreign policy concerns". However, the company did not reveal the names of the end users, which according to research by Citizen Lab include, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.<ref>"NSO Group points finger at state clients in WhatsApp spying case". The Guardian. April 7, 2020. Archived from the original on April 7, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.</ref>
Jeff Bezos phone hack
In January 2020, a digital forensic analysis revealed that the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos received an encrypted message on WhatsApp from the official account of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The message reportedly contained a malicious file, the receipt of which resulted in Bezos' phone being hacked. The United Nations' special rapporteur David Kaye and Agnes Callamard later confirmed that Jeff Bezos' phone was hacked through WhatsApp, as he was one of the targets of Saudi's hit list of individuals close to The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.<ref>"Jeff Bezos hack: Amazon boss's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'". The Guardian. January 22, 2020. Archived from the original on February 29, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2020.</ref>
FBI
In 2021, an FBI document obtained by Property of the People, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, through an FOIA request, reveals, that WhatsApp and iMessage are vulnerable to law-enforcement real-time searches.<ref name="propertyofthepeople/21114562">"January 2021 FBI Infographic re Lawful Access to Secure Messaging Apps Data". Property of the People. November 19, 2021. Archived from the original on August 27, 2022. Retrieved October 9, 2022.</ref><ref name="jpost/687360">Ben Zion Gad (November 30, 2021). "Can the FBI monitor your WhatsApp conversations?". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on November 19, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2022.</ref><ref name="rollingstone/1261816">Kroll, Andy (November 29, 2021). "FBI Document Says the Feds Can Get Your WhatsApp Data -- in Real Time". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 14, 2023. Retrieved November 30, 2021.</ref>
Tek Fog
In January 2022, an investigation by The Wire found that BJP, an Indian political party allegedly used an app called Tek Fog which was capable of hacking inactive WhatsApp accounts en masse in order to mass message their contacts with propaganda. According to the Wire, a whistleblower with app access was able to hack a test WhatsApp account controlled by reporters "within minutes."<ref>"Tek Fog: An App With BJP Footprints for Cyber Troops to Automate Hate, Manipulate Trends". The Wire. January 6, 2022. Archived from the original on January 6, 2022. Retrieved January 6, 2022.</ref><ref name="Monde">"Tek Fog, un vaste système pour manipuler l'opinion sur les réseaux sociaux en Inde". Le Monde (in français). January 6, 2022. Archived from the original on January 6, 2022. Retrieved January 6, 2022.</ref> Later, it was revealed to be a hoax news story for which The Wire also issued a formal apology to its readers.<ref>"The Wire Editorial: To Our Readers, an Apology and a Promise". The Wire. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023. Retrieved November 3, 2022.</ref>
Terrorism
In December 2015, it was reported that terrorist organization ISIS had been using WhatsApp to plot the November 2015 Paris attacks.<ref name="Perez2017">Perez, Evan; Prokupecz, Shimon (December 17, 2015). "First on CNN: Paris attackers likely used encrypted apps, officials say". CNN. Archived from the original on March 28, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.</ref> According to The Independent, ISIS also uses WhatsApp to traffic sex slaves.<ref>Agerholm, Harriet (July 7, 2016). "Isis is using Whatsapp to sell 12 year old sex slaves alongside kittens". The Independent. Archived from the original on January 17, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.</ref>
In March 2017, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said encryption capabilities of messaging tools like WhatsApp are unacceptable, as news reported that Khalid Masood used the application several minutes before perpetrating the 2017 Westminster attack. Rudd publicly called for police and intelligence agencies to be given access to WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging services to prevent future terror attacks.<ref name="Sparrow2017">Sparrow, Andrew (March 26, 2017). "WhatsApp must be accessible to authorities, says Amber Rudd". The Guardian. Archived from the original on March 26, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2017.</ref>
In April 2017, the perpetrator of the Stockholm truck attack reportedly used WhatsApp to exchange messages with an ISIS supporter shortly before and after the incident. The messages involved discussing how to make an explosive device and a confession to the attack.<ref name="Osborne2017">Osborne, Samuel (April 10, 2017). "Stockholm suspect Rakhmat Akilov 'exchanged Whatsapp messages with Isis supporter before and after attack'". The Independent. Archived from the original on May 23, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2017.</ref>
In April 2017, nearly 300 WhatsApp groups with about 250 members each were reportedly being used to mobilize stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir to disrupt security forces' operations at encounter sites. According to police, 90% of these groups were closed down after police contacted their admins.<ref>"300 WhatsApp groups used to mobilise stone-pelters in trouble-hit Kashmir: Cop". Hindustan Times. April 24, 2017. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.</ref> Further, after a six-month probe which involved the infiltration of 79 WhatsApp groups, the National Investigation Agency reported that out of about 6386 members and admins of these groups, about 1000 were residents of Pakistan and gulf nations. Further, for their help in negating anti-terror operations, the Indian stone pelters were getting funded through barter trade from Pakistan and other indirect means.<ref>"WhatsApp used to gather stone pelters, many admins abroad: NIA". The Indian Express. September 5, 2017. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.</ref>
In May 2022, the FBI stated that an ISIS sympathizer, who was plotting to assassinate George W. Bush, was arrested based on his WhatsApp data. According to the arrest warrant for the suspect, his WhatsApp account was placed under surveillance.<ref>Vargas, Ramon Antonio (May 24, 2022). "FBI says it foiled Islamic State sympathizer's plot to kill George W Bush". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 15, 2023. Retrieved May 25, 2022.</ref>
Scams and malware
There are numerous ongoing scams on WhatsApp that let hackers spread viruses or malware.<ref>"Most Common WhatsApp Scams". techadvisor.co.uk. June 15, 2018. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2018.</ref> In May 2016, some WhatsApp users were reported to have been tricked into downloading a third-party application called WhatsApp Gold, which was part of a scam that infected the users' phones with malware.<ref name="Bolton-2016-05-24">Bolton, Doug (May 24, 2016). "WhatsApp Gold: Scammers trick mobile phone users into downloading malware". The Independent. Archived from the original on August 3, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016.</ref> A message that promises to allow access to their WhatsApp friends' conversations, or their contact lists, has become the most popular hit against anyone who uses the application in Brazil. Clicking on the message actually sends paid text messages. Since December 2016, more than 1.5 million people have clicked and lost money.<ref>Filho, Eduardo F. (February 26, 2017). "Novo golpe de Whatsapp atinge 1,5 milhão de vítimas em 3 meses". Archived from the original on March 14, 2017.</ref>
Another application called GB WhatsApp is considered malicious by cybersecurity firm Symantec because it usually performs some unauthorized operations on end-user devices.<ref>"Case Study: The Dangerous Journey of a Fake WhatsApp App on OneDrive". symantec.com. March 13, 2018. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2018.</ref>
Bans
China
WhatsApp is owned by Meta, whose main social media service Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009.<ref>Bradsher, Keith (September 25, 2017). "China Blocks WhatsApp, Broadening Online Censorship". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2018.</ref> In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China.<ref>Mozur, Paul (July 18, 2017). "China Disrupts WhatsApp Service in Online Clampdown". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 17, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2018.</ref><ref>"China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization". Associated Press News. June 29, 2020. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved June 29, 2020.</ref>
Iran
On May 9, 2014, the government of Iran announced that it had proposed to block the access to WhatsApp service to Iranian residents. "The reason for this is the assumption of WhatsApp by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American Zionist," said Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, head of the country's Committee on Internet Crimes. Subsequently, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani issued an order to the Ministry of ICT to stop filtering WhatsApp.<ref>"President Hassan Rouhani issued order to 'hold WhatsApp service filteration'". BBC Persian (in فارسی). Archived from the original on May 9, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2014.</ref><ref>Daftari, Lisa (May 4, 2014). "Iran bans WhatsApp because of link to 'American Zionist' Mark Zuckerberg". Fox News. Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved May 13, 2014.</ref> It was blocked permanently until Meta answers September 2022.<ref>Dpa. "Iran Threatens To Permanently Block WhatsApp And Instagram". Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Archived from the original on March 5, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2022.</ref>
Turkey
Turkey temporarily banned WhatsApp in 2016, following the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey.<ref>McGoogan, Cara (December 20, 2016). "Turkey blocks access to Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp following ambassador's assassination". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on December 7, 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2018.</ref>
Brazil
On March 1, 2016, Diego Dzodan, Facebook's vice-president for Latin America was arrested in Brazil for not cooperating with an investigation in which WhatsApp conversations were requested.<ref>"PF prende executivo do Facebook por empresa não liberar dados do WhatsApp" (in português). Folha de São Paulo. March 1, 2016. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2016.</ref> On March 2, 2016, at dawn the next day, Dzodan was released because the Court of Appeal held that the arrest was disproportionate and unreasonable.<ref>"'Felizes', diz Facebook sobre soltura de vice-presidente preso em SP". March 2, 2016. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.</ref>
On May 2, 2016, mobile providers in Brazil were ordered to block WhatsApp for 72 hours for the service's second failure to cooperate with criminal court orders.<ref>"Brazil Judge blocks access to WhatsApp messaging service". BBC News. May 3, 2016. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2020.</ref> Once again, the block was lifted following an appeal, after less than 24 hours.<ref name="ars-liftedagain">Farivar, Cyrus (May 3, 2016). "Brazilian appellate judge rescinds WhatsApp block". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.</ref>
Brazil's Central Bank issued an order to payment card companies Visa and Mastercard on June 23, 2020, to stop working with WhatsApp on its new electronic payment system. A statement from the Bank asserted the decision to block the Facebook-owned company's latest offering was taken in order to "preserve an adequate competitive environment" in the mobile payments space and to ensure "functioning of a payment system that's interchangeable, fast, secure, transparent, open and cheap."<ref>"Brazil Suspends WhatsApp's New Payments System". The New York Times. June 23, 2020. Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.</ref><ref>"Brazil suspends WhatsApp's payments service". TechCrunch. June 24, 2020. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved June 26, 2020.</ref>
Uganda
The government of Uganda banned WhatsApp and Facebook, along with other social media platforms, to enforce a tax on the use of social media.<ref>Shaikh, Rafia (May 31, 2018). "Uganda Imposes Daily Social Media Tax to Stop "Gossip" on WhatsApp". Wccftech. Archived from the original on July 22, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2018.</ref> Users are to be charged USh.200/= per day to access these services according to the new law set by parliament.<ref>"Uganda imposes WhatsApp 'gossip' tax". BBC News. May 31, 2018. Archived from the original on June 4, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2018.</ref>
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
The United Arab Emirates banned WhatsApp video chat and VoIP call applications<ref>"End UAE ban on WhatsApp calls, Khalaf Al Habtoor urges". ArabianBusiness.com. Archived from the original on April 10, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.</ref><ref name=":0">"Popular chat app ToTok is actually a spying tool of UAE government – report". The Guardian. Associated Press. December 23, 2019. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on June 11, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.</ref> in as early as 2013<ref name=":1">"Skype, WhatsApp face ban in Saudi Arabia – report". ArabianBusiness.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.</ref> due to what is often reported as an effort to protect the commercial interests of their home grown nationally owned telecom providers (du and Etisalat).<ref name=":1" /> Their app ToTok has received press suggesting it is able to spy on users.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Mazzetti, Mark; Perlroth, Nicole; Bergman, Ronen (December 22, 2019). "It Seemed Like a Popular Chat App. It's Secretly a Spy Tool". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 1, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.</ref>
Cuba
In July 2021, the Cuban government blocked access to several social media platforms, including WhatsApp, to curb the spread of information during the anti-government protests.<ref>"Cuba's internet cutoff: A go-to tactic to suppress dissent". Associated Press News. July 13, 2021. Archived from the original on July 13, 2021. Retrieved July 14, 2021.</ref>
Switzerland
In December 2021, the Swiss army banned the use of WhatsApp and several other non-Swiss encrypted messaging services by army personnel. 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.<ref>Faife, Corin (January 7, 2022). "Swiss Army drops WhatsApp for homegrown messaging service, citing privacy concerns". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 2, 2023. Retrieved January 7, 2022.</ref>
Zambia
In August 2021, the digital rights organization Access Now reported that WhatsApp along with several other social media apps was being blocked in Zambia for the duration of the general election. 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.<ref>Campbell, Ian Carlos (August 12, 2021). "WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook are reportedly blocked in Zambia during its presidential election". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 30, 2023. Retrieved August 13, 2021.</ref>
Third-party clients
In mid-2013, WhatsApp Inc. filed for the DMCA takedown of the discussion thread on the XDA Developers forums about the then popular third-party client "WhatsApp Plus".<ref>"ipla-2013-07-22.md". XDA Developers. July 13, 2013. Archived from the original on May 30, 2023. Retrieved February 8, 2022.</ref>
In 2015, some third-party WhatsApp clients that were reverse-engineering the WhatsApp mobile app, received a cease and desist to stop activities that were violating WhatsApp legal terms. As a result, users of third-party WhatsApp clients were also banned.<ref>"WhatsApp+ Is Now Officially Dead After Receiving A Cease And Desist From The Real WhatsApp". January 21, 2015. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved June 22, 2021. See also: Legal Action Notices Received Archived April 8, 2023, at the Wayback Machine</ref>
WhatsApp Business
WhatsApp launched two business-oriented apps in January 2018,<ref>Ong, Thuy (January 19, 2018). "WhatsApp launches a separate app for small businesses". The Verge. Archived from the original on January 19, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2020.</ref> separated by the intended userbase:
- A WhatsApp Business app for small companies<ref>Lin, Jave (March 8, 2018). "WhatsApp Business App: The Definitive Guide (2018)". LinkedIn. Retrieved March 15, 2018.</ref>
- An Enterprise Solution for bigger companies with global customer bases, such as airlines, e-commerce retailers and banks, who would be able to offer customer service and conversational commerce (e-commerce) via WhatsApp chat, using live agents or chatbots (as far back as 2015, companies like Meteordesk<ref>Días, Ediciones Cinco (September 1, 2015). "MeteorDesk o cómo atender mejor al cliente a través de Whatsapp". Archived from the original on March 27, 2018. Retrieved March 26, 2018.</ref> had provided unofficial solutions for enterprises to attend to large numbers of users, but these were shut down by WhatsApp)
In October 2020, Facebook announced the introduction of pricing tiers for services offered via the WhatsApp Business API, charged on a per-message basis.<ref>"WhatsApp". whatsapp.com. Retrieved October 23, 2020.</ref><ref>"Facebook adds hosting, shopping features and pricing tiers to WhatsApp Business". TechCrunch. October 22, 2020. Archived from the original on December 10, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.</ref>
User statistics
WhatsApp handled ten billion messages per day in August 2012,<ref>Olanof, Drew (August 23, 2012). "WhatsApp hits new record with 10 billion total messages in one day". The Next Web. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2013.</ref> growing from two billion in April 2012,<ref>Sushma, Parab (April 4, 2012). "WhatsApp founder to operators: 'We're no SMS-killer, we get people hooked on data'". The Next Web. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2013.</ref> and one billion the previous October.<ref>Olanoff, Drew (October 31, 2011). "WhatsApp users now send over one billion messages a day". TheNextWeb. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2013.</ref> On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages.<ref>WhatsApp (June 12, 2013), 27 Billion msgs handled in just 24 hours! (µblog), Tweeter, archived from the original on October 15, 2013, retrieved August 20, 2013, New daily record: 10B+ msgs sent (inbound) and 17B+ msgs received (outbound) by our users
</ref> According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp "has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to international calling on landlines".<ref>Bradshaw, Tim (November 14, 2011). "WhatsApp users get the message". Financial Times. London. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013. Retrieved January 29, 2013.</ref>
By April 22, 2014, WhatsApp had over 500 million monthly active users, 700 million photos and 100 million videos were being shared daily, and the messaging system was handling more than 10 billion messages each day.<ref>"WhatsApp crosses half-a-billion user mark; strong growth in India and Brazil". The Indian Express. April 23, 2014. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved April 23, 2014.</ref><ref>Chowdhry, Amit (April 22, 2014). "WhatsApp Hits 500 Million Users". Forbes. Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2014.</ref>
On August 24, 2014, Koum announced on his Twitter account that WhatsApp had over 600 million active users worldwide. At that point WhatsApp was adding about 25 million new users every month, or 833,000 active users per day.<ref name="Parmy Olsen"/><ref>Christian de Looper (September 6, 2014). "WhatsApp to reach 3 billion users, Zuckerberg to invest billions". Daily Digest News. Archived from the original on September 7, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2014.</ref>
In May 2017, it was reported that WhatsApp users spend over 340 million minutes on video calls each day on the app. This is the equivalent of roughly 646 years of video calls per day.<ref>"Whatsapp users spend an average of 646 years on video calls". Smatt Geeks Media. May 9, 2017. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.</ref>
By February 2017, WhatsApp had over 1.2 billion users globally,<ref>Statt, Nick (February 1, 2016). "WhatsApp has grown to 1 billion users". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2016.</ref> reaching 1.5 billion monthly active users by the end of 2017.<ref>Constine, Josh (January 31, 2018). "WhatsApp hits 1.5 billion monthly users. $19B? Not so bad". Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 8, 2018.</ref>
In January 2020, WhatsApp reached over 5 billion installs on Google Play Store making it only the second non-Google app to achieve this milestone.<ref>"WhatsApp registers over 5 billion installs on Google Play Store". Hindustan Times. January 19, 2020. Archived from the original on January 19, 2020. Retrieved January 19, 2020.</ref>
As of February 2020, WhatsApp had over 2 billion users globally.<ref>"WhatsApp Blog". whatsapp.com. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved February 12, 2020.</ref><ref>"WhatsApp: number of users 2013-2017". Statista. Retrieved July 21, 2020.</ref>
Specific markets
India is by far WhatsApp's largest market in terms of total number of users. In May 2014, WhatsApp crossed 50 million monthly active users in India, which is also its largest country by the number of monthly active users,<ref>Agrawal, Rajat (May 10, 2014). "WhatsApp crosses 50 million monthly active users in India, ties up with Airtel for special data plans". Archived from the original on May 12, 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2014.</ref> then 70 million in October 2014, making users in India 10% of WhatsApp's total user base.<ref>PTI (November 3, 2014). "WhatsApp user-base crosses 70 million in India". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on July 3, 2017. Retrieved July 25, 2023.</ref> In February 2017, WhatsApp reached 200 million monthly active users in India.<ref>"WhatsApp user-base crosses 200 million in India". February 25, 2017. Archived from the original on March 3, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.</ref>
Israel is one of WhatsApp's strongest markets in terms of ubiquitous usage. According to Globes, already by 2013 the application was installed on 92% of all smartphones, with 86% of users reporting daily use.<ref name="globes2013">Hoffman, Tzahi (November 14, 2013). "92% מבעלי הסמארטפונים בישראל משתמשים בוואטסאפ" [92% of Israel's smartphones use WhatsApp]. Globes (in עברית). Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2017.</ref>
Competition
WhatsApp competes with a number of messaging services. They include services like iMessage (estimated 1.3 billion active users<ref>St, Wall. "Information: Facebook's Messenger has overtaken Apple's iMessage". MarketWatch. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref>), WeChat (1.26 billion active users<ref>Lee, Cyrus. "Daily active users for WeChat exceeds 1 billion". ZDNet. Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref><ref>"WeChat: active users worldwide". Statista. Retrieved July 21, 2020.</ref>), Telegram (700 million users<ref>Roth, Emma (June 19, 2022). "Telegram's Premium subscription is here and it costs $4.99 / month". The Verge. Retrieved May 16, 2023.</ref>), Viber (260 million active users<ref>"Mind-Blowing Viber Statistics for 2019". 99firms.com. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref>), LINE (217 million active users<ref>"LINE: number of monthly active users". Statista. Retrieved July 21, 2020.</ref>), KakaoTalk (57 million active users<ref>"South Korea's President Yoon calls for quick resumption of popular messaging, portal services after fire | the Straits Times". The Straits Times. October 16, 2022.</ref>), and Signal (40 million active users<ref>"Signal Revenue & Usage Statistics (2023)". Business of Apps. Retrieved May 16, 2023.</ref>). Both Telegram and Signal in particular were reported to get registration spikes during WhatsApp outages and controversies.<ref>"Millions of people flock to Telegram following WhatsApp outage". The Independent. March 14, 2019. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref><ref>"Telegram Saw 8M Downloads After WhatsApp Got Acquired". TechCrunch. February 25, 2014. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref><ref>"Telegram Gets 1.5M+ Download Spike As Brazil WhatsApp Shutdown Kicks In". TechCrunch. December 17, 2015. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref>
WhatsApp has increasingly drawn its innovation from competing services,<ref>"WhatsApp copies Telegram to add one-way 'broadcast' mode to group chats". TechCrunch. June 30, 2018. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref> such as a Telegram-inspired web version<ref>"WhatsApp's Android code hints at upcoming browser app". Cult of Android. December 12, 2014. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref> and features for groups.<ref>"Telegram Claims 50M Monthly Active Users, Seems To Be Attracting Teams". TechCrunch. December 9, 2014. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref> In 2016, WhatsApp was accused of copying features from a then-unreleased version of iMessage.<ref>"WhatsApp gets accused of copying features from iMessage in iOS 10". Deccan Chronicle. July 5, 2016. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.</ref>
See also
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- Comparison of cross-platform instant messaging clients
- Comparison of user features of messaging platforms
- Comparison of VoIP software
- Criticism of Facebook
- List of most-downloaded Google Play applications
References
External links
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