WhatsApp

Billions of messages are sent over the WhatsApp chat platform every day. One of the reasons for the service's massive popularity is that it lets users send and receive as many media-rich messages as they want, which – as long as they've limited WhatsApp's use of their cellular data plan – costs them next to nothing. That's great news for senders, but one of the drawbacks of receiving...

WhatsApp has made it easier to organize your conversations with the global rollout of custom chat lists. This new feature expands on the chat filters introduced earlier this year, and offers a more personalized way to manage your messaging. To create a custom list, tap the plus (+) icon in the filter bar at the top of the Chats tab. You can add both individual contacts and group chats to...

Meta's WhatsApp chat platform offers more than just the ability to send messages. It also provides various text formatting options to help you emphasize your messages. Whether you want to make your text bold, italicize it, strikethrough, or change the font, WhatsApp has you covered. Here's a quick guide on how to use these text formatting features to enhance your chatting experience,...

WhatsApp has introduced a custom sticker creation tool for iPhone users running iOS 17 or later. Keep reading to learn how to use it. In the world of instant messaging, stickers offer a dynamic and playful way to express your emotions and thoughts. But instead of using standardized stickers from an existing stock, wouldn't it be better if you could create your own? WhatsApp on iPhone has...

WhatsApp has rolled out a new option that lets users on iPhone share photos and video over the messaging platform in their original quality. Here's how it works and how to use it. Previously, WhatsApp users could only send media in high resolution or "HD quality." But while that is a welcome improvement that addressing the service's low quality media sharing limitation, it still involves...

WhatsApp has rolled out a new option that lets users send photos and video over the messaging platform in high resolution. Keep reading to learn how it's done. WhatsApp has released an update allowing iPhone and Android users to send photos and videos in high resolution, finally addressing the service's low quality media sharing limitation. Called "HD quality," the option means users can...

Unsolicited phone calls are a regular annoyance and even a cause of stress for many smartphone users these days. Thankfully, iOS includes an option to automatically silence calls to your iPhone from unknown numbers, and now you can do the same for calls you receive via WhatsApp, too. WhatsApp announced a new Silence Unknown Callers feature for the encrypted messaging platform in June 2023....

WhatsApp in May 2023 introduced a new Chat Lock feature that allows you to secure select conversations in your inbox behind a passcode, fingerprint, or Face ID authentication. Keep reading to learn how it's done. Millions of users rely on WhatsApp as a means of privately and securely communicating with others, which is why the company's developers are continually seeking new ways to improve...

WhatsApp is rolling out a new ability for users to edit messages after they have been sent over the popular Meta-owned encrypted chat platform. Keep reading to learn how it works on iPhone and Android. It's been a long time coming, but WhatsApp has finally brought its much-anticipated sent-message editing feature to the chat service. When Apple released iOS 16, it introduced the ability...

Previously, WhatsApp has allowed users of the encrypted messaging platform to link up to four devices to their account, but only one of those devices could be a smartphone. Happily, that's now changed, and WhatsApp has introduced the ability to use the same account on multiple phones. So now you can link another phone as one of up to four additional devices, the same as when you link with...

In a new privacy-centric update released in August 2022, WhatsApp has added the ability for users to adjust the visibility of their "Last Seen" status on a contact-by-contact basis. Keep reading to learn how it's done. As regular WhatsApp users will know, the "Last Seen" status of a contact you're in conversation with sits atop the conversation thread, informing you when that contact last...

After a long wait, Meta this week announced the ability to transfer WhatsApp chat history, photos, videos, and voice messages from Android to iPhone while maintaining end-to-end encryption. The system uses Apple's Move to iOS app for Android phones, and can be initiated during the setup process for a new (or factory reset) iPhone. This article runs through the steps involved in transferring...

WhatsApp in 2020 launched disappearing messages on its end-to-end encrypted chat platform as a way of doubling down on user privacy. If you want to have control over how long a message lasts in WhatsApp, read on to learn how it works. When you sit down and have a face-to-face conversation with someone, usually you're reasonably confident that your conversation isn't being recorded and stored ...

For a long time now, WhatsApp has included a feature that shows when a user was last online or last active on the messaging platform, which can be either helpful or a hindrance, depending on your personal or business situation. As regular WhatsApp users will know, the "Last Seen" status of a contact sits atop the conversation thread, informing you when that contact last opened the app and...

Despite strong competition from the likes of Telegram and Signal, WhatsApp remains the most popular mobile messaging platform by a mile, connecting over a billion active users around the world every day. As a smartphone app, WhatsApp messages are principally exchanged between iPhones and Android phones, but WhatsApp is known to be developing an iPad app that would increase the number of...

WhatsApp has rolled out multi-device support to all users on iOS and Android, allowing WhatsApp to be used on up to four linked devices without users needing to be connected via a smartphone. Previously, the WhatsApp mobile app was required to authenticate an account used on another device, such as a computer, and used a QR code to link a user account to a web browser or desktop app. While...

WhatsApp end-to-end encrypted backups are now rolling out for iPhone users, Facebook has announced. Until now, WhatsApp let users back up their chat history to ‌‌iCloud‌‌, but the messages and media contained in the backups weren't protected by WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption while in ‌‌Apple's cloud servers‌. End-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you're...

If you're a heavy WhatsApp user and your iPhone is running low on storage, it may be that all the videos, voice messages and photos stored in the app are taking up a hefty amount of space on your device. Fortunately, WhatsApp features a built-in media management tool that can help you identify, select, and bulk delete GIFs, photos, and videos that may be filling up your phone. The tool...

Despite strong competition from the likes of Telegram and Signal, WhatsApp remains the most popular messaging platform by a mile. At the last count in 2020, the Facebook-owned service had more than 2 billion WhatsApp users around the globe and rising. If you consider that it had 1.5 billion users in 2018 and 1 billion in 2016, then the number of active WhatsApp accounts has been increasing...

Over 100 million new users joined encrypted messaging app Telegram in January 2021. The stunning growth in the platform's user base was linked to an exodus from rival chat app WhatsApp, which concerned many of its users with a confusing privacy policy update that seemed to imply that more of their data would be shared with Facebook. WhatsApp tried to deal with the fallout by clarifying that...

In WhatsApp, you can set a custom alert tone for messages and calls from a specific person in your contacts, just like you can in the Contacts app on iPhone. Setting a special alert tone for a WhatsApp contact enables you to recognize when that particular person is calling you or has sent you a message, without you even having to look at your phone's screen. To know instantly when someone...

Facebook's free WhatsApp instant messaging app uses end-to-end encryption so that messages exchanged over the platform can only be read by the intended recipient. If you use WhatsApp for important conversations and you want to further ensure your privacy, you can prevent WhatsApp messages from showing previews on your iPhone. When you receive a WhatsApp message on your iPhone, the...

WhatsApp on iPhone includes an option to lock the app with your device's Face ID or Touch ID authentication. This article explains how to enable the feature. Locking WhatsApp is a neat way of doubling the security and privacy of your messages, and especially useful if your iPhone isn't set up to automatically lock after a few minutes of idle time, because even you leave your iPhone unlocked,...

WhatsApp has been updated to allow users to create group video chats with up to 50 people on the social platform, thanks to an integration with Facebook's recently announced Messenger Rooms feature. Facebook unveiled Messenger Rooms as an alternative to Zoom and Group FaceTime in April, releasing it to a small trial group of users. Facebook said part of its plan was to extend the capability to ...

WhatsApp has upgraded its end-to-end encrypted video call feature, which now allows groups of up to eight participants to chat together, up from the previous limit of four. WhatsApp has been gradually developing its group video call capabilities through beta builds, as rival video call services like Zoom, FaceTime and Skype have exploded in popularity amid the ongoing stay-at-home measures....

WhatsApp messenger recently rolled out its long-awaited Dark Mode theme for iPhone, which is good news for anyone who uses the chat app in bed when they just can't sleep. With Dark Mode enabled, users will benefit from no more bright white splash screen blinding them upon opening WhatsApp, a less harsh app interface, new dark themes for chat threads, and potentially less battery drain....

WhatsApp is developing an updated Mac app that features native Apple silicon support, with the company today providing a TestFlight beta to allow some Mac users to try out the new version of the app. Apple silicon Macs have been able to use the Electron-based Intel version of WhatsApp for Mac since 2020 thanks to Rosetta 2, but there has been no native version available. An Apple silicon...

WhatsApp is set to end support for iOS 10 and iOS 11 versions of Apple's mobile operating system, requiring all users to be running at least iOS 12 after October 24, 2022. That means iOS 10 and iOS 11 users – who will mainly be iPhone 5 and ‌iPhone‌ 5C owners – will no longer be able to use the encrypted chat service after the specified date. WhatsApp already states on its Help Center...

WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will allow users to "silently" leave group chats hosted by the messaging platform instead of all members of the group being notified when they do. As it stands, when someone leaves a group chat, WhatsApp announces their exit to the entire group, making the act of leaving very public. It's not possible right now to leave a group quietly, but WhatsApp...

WhatsApp has announced it is rolling out multiple new features today that have undergone long testing periods, including emoji reactions, bigger file transfers, and larger groups. WhatsApp has been working on message reactions – or "Tapbacks" in Apple Messages parlance – for some time, with evidence of their development first coming to light last summer. The feature gives messaging...

Popular Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp today announced the launch of a new "Communities" feature, which is designed to allow people to bring together separate groups under a single umbrella. WhatsApp says that this will give people a way to receive updates that are sent to an entire community, and then organize smaller discussion groups on important topics. So, for example, school parents ...

WhatsApp is changing the way the platform handles media sent over chats with disappearing messages enabled, reports WABetaInfo. Going forward, WhatsApp will no longer automatically save images and other visual media to your iPhone’s Photos library if they appear within a chat thread that has disappearing messages turned on. The "Save to Camera Roll" option is now automatically turned off ...

Voice messages or "voice notes" are often the preferred form of communication on WhatsApp, with on average around 7 billion sent over the platform every day, and today WhatsApp has announced several new features to improve the experience of using them. The most notable change that recently came out of beta testing is out-of-chat playback, which lets you listen to a voice message outside of...

WhatsApp is testing out a much larger 2GB cap for file transfers between users of the instant messaging platform, reports WABetaInfo. WhatsApp's file-sharing capabilities have become a key feature of the service, and the app has included the ability to share media files within conversations since 2017, but its 100MB file size limitation hasn't changed in that time. However, according to...

WhatsApp is working on letting users conduct polls within groups on the chat platform, the latest beta for iOS has revealed (via WABetaInfo). The coming ability to create polls within WhatsApp groups was confirmed in screenshots that show the process of setting one up, with users able to ask a poll question and group members able to choose from pre-defined answers. Polls will only be...

WhatsApp's plan to bring iMessage-style message reactions to the massively popular chat platform appears to be entering its final stages, based on new screenshots shared by WABetaInfo. WhatsApp has been working on message reactions – or "Tapbacks" in Apple Messages parlance – for some time, with evidence of their development first coming to light last summer. The feature gives...

There could be a WhatsApp app for iPad coming in the near future, according to WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart. In an interview with The Verge, Cathcart said that people have long been asking for an ‌iPad‌ app, and that the company would "love to do it." Though Cathcart did not commit to a release date for a WhatsApp ‌iPad‌ app, the Meta-owned company already has the underlying structure in...

WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature to users of its beta app that adds the ability to continue listening to a voice message after you've exited the chat thread it was received in. WhatsApp has been working on a global voice note player for some time to let users listen to voice messages in the background while navigating around the app. Currently, if you play a voice note and then exit ...

WhatsApp is testing a helpful new feature on iOS that displays profile pictures in system notifications when users receive new messages from chats and groups. Image credit: WABetaInfo First spotted by app specialist WABetaInfo, the first new feature for the platform in 2022 uses APIs in iOS 15 to add the WhatsApp profile images to notifications in top-screen banners and in the Notification...

WhatsApp has made a privacy change to prevent people on the messaging platform from viewing the "Last Seen" status of users whom they have never chatted with, according to the latest report from independent feature specialist WABetaInfo. As regular WhatsApp users will know, the "Last Seen" status of a contact sits atop the conversation thread, informing you when that contact last opened the...

WhatsApp has launched a cryptocurrency payment feature for a small number of users in the United States, thanks to Novi integration, a digital wallet owned by Facebook (now Meta). The pilot program lets users of the encrypted messaging app send and receive money "instantly, securely, and with no fees" using the Paxos Dollar (USPD) stablecoin, whose value is linked to the US dollar. The...

WhatsApp says it is rolling out a new option that makes disappearing messages the default behavior for all new chats on the end-to-end encrypted messaging platform. It's been over a year since WhatsApp launched its disappearing messages feature, which allows messages, photos, and videos to be marked to disappear after seven days. The feature can be enabled for direct messages and in groups...

WhatsApp is working on an app for iPadOS, and thanks to Mac Catalyst, an app for macOS too, according to WABetaInfo. WhatsApp's rumored app for iPad will be a Catalyst app, enabling it to run seamlessly on macOS. This effectively allows the same app to share code while running on separate platforms. The new WhatsApp app for macOS apparently looks very similar to the app for iPadOS,...

WhatsApp has rolled out multi-device support to all users on iOS and Android, allowing WhatsApp to be used on up to four linked devices without users needing to be connected via a smartphone. To enable multi-device support, users need to join the multi-device beta. Launch WhatsApp on iPhone, then select Settings -> Linked Devices. Select Multi-Device Beta, then tap Join Beta. Once that's...

WhatsApp end-to-end encrypted backups are now rolling out for iPhone users, Facebook has announced. Until now, WhatsApp let users back up their chat history to ‌‌iCloud‌‌, but the messages and media contained in the backups weren't protected by WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption while in ‌‌Apple's cloud servers‌. Since Apple holds the encryption keys for ‌‌iCloud‌‌ Backup, a subpoena of...

WhatsApp has announced it will give its two billion users the option to upload their chat backups to Apple's iCloud using password-protected encryption. Currently, WhatsApp on iPhone lets users back up their chat history to ‌‌iCloud‌‌, but messages and media that users back up aren't protected by WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption while in ‌‌Apple's cloud servers‌. Given that Apple...