Technology
What end-to-end encryption actually is — and the difference between it and the padlock in your browser
Two kinds of encryption get called the same thing. One hides your message from the company carrying it; the other does not.
Tagged “WhatsApp”
Technology
Lost your phone? Your WhatsApp account comes back through the SIM, not through WhatsApp
The company cannot verify who owns a number, so it cannot shut an account down on your say-so. Everything therefore depends on getting a…
Technology
The crying face is now the world’s most used emoji, and laughing-crying has become the one that ages you
Google told the New York Times the single-tear crying face is now the most popular emoji worldwide. It is used for good news, bad news and…
Technology
WhatsApp will tell parents when a teenager joins or leaves a group — but will not show them the messages
Parents get notifications and a say over privacy settings. Messages and calls stay end-to-end encrypted and private. One analyst calls the…
Technology
WhatsApp calls by link, no account needed — and the security question that comes with every join-by-link system
A link that opens a WhatsApp call in any browser solves a real business problem. It also makes the link the credential, which is the lesson…
Technology
WhatsApp is testing a paid tier called WhatsApp Plus — and that name already belongs to something that will get your account banned
Meta is testing a €2.50 subscription for stickers and themes. A fake app has used the same name for years. Searching for one and installing…
Technology
WhatsApp is finally adopting chat bubbles — and the reason it is a system feature rather than an app trick is a security story
Floating chat heads used to need a permission that let any app draw over any other. That was abused badly enough to be redesigned, which is…
Technology
WhatsApp calls are getting noise cancellation — how it decides what to delete, and the calls where you should switch it off
The model keeps speech and discards everything else. That is the feature and the failure: it also discards other people talking, and…
Technology
WhatsApp is building accounts for under-13s. The notable part is that it is admitting they were already there
Parent-managed accounts are linked to a guardian’s, locked behind a six-digit PIN, and stripped of Status, Channels, Meta AI and…
Technology
WhatsApp’s new lockdown mode is designed to break normal use — which is exactly why it works
Strict account settings forces two-step verification on, blocks media from non-contacts, kills link previews and silences unknown callers…
Technology
WhatsApp’s threaded replies have reached the Android beta — a reply counter on the bubble, threads in channels too, and the one problem Slack never solved
Beta 2.25.25.7 puts a reply counter on the message bubble with a thread view behind it, across chats, groups, communities and channels…
Technology
WhatsApp stops working on the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus from 5 May — why, and what the owners of Dhaka’s second-hand iPhones can do
From 5 May WhatsApp requires iOS 15.2 or later. Three iPhones that cannot get there — the 5s, the 6 and the 6 Plus, all common in…