Вайбер ватсап на английском как пишется

Здравствуйте, уважаемые читатели блога KtoNaNovenkogo.ru. Меня зовут Роман и сегодня я расскажу вам о двух программах, которыми пользуюсь уже достаточно долго на своем Iphone и они очень меня порадовали за это время (наряду с Periscope).

Это Viber (или вайбер, вибер) и WhatsApp (или вацап, ватсап). Это очень удобные программы для общения посредством сообщений и звонков с использованием интернета. При том все это абсолютно бесплатно.

Что такое вайбер? Что такое вацап?

Viber — это мобильное приложение для совершения звонков, а также отправки сообшений, не только текстовых, но и видео, фото, аудио сообщений. И все это абсолютно бесплатно (оплатить надо будет лишь интернет, с помощью которого и работает приложение).

Рекламы тут нет, и , как заявляют разработчики, не будет. Но есть внутренняя реклама стикеров или наклеек вибера. Это очень похоже на наклейки вконтакте. Картинка, выражающая ваши эмоции, если проще — большой смайлик (можете посмотреть коды универсальных смайликов для Вконтакте). Но она работает просто как уведомление внутри приложения (цифры во вкладке, как на новых сообщениях в диалоге). Но не будем обвинять в этом разработчика, на данный момент это единственное на чем он пока зарабатывает за счет пользователей, если не считать платные звонки тем, у кого нет Viber (Viber out).

Планируется также выпуск новых платных функций, как сообщает Viber, но то, что сейчас бесплатно, таковым и останется, уверяет он.

WhatsApp — это очень похожее на Viber приложение, но без возможности звонить, хотя есть и другие отличия, давайте разберемся.

Отличия Viber от WhatsApp

1. Первое отличие — это «бесплатность». Да, за второй год использования WhatsApp требует с нас аж 0,99 USD.
2. У вацапа нет возможности звонков. Даже на незарегистрированные номера за деньги (как в случае Viber out).
3. Ватсапа нет на пк.
4. У вибера есть стикеры, вацап таковыми похвастаться не может.

На этом отличия вроде как и закончились, если не считать основные цвета интерфейса, конечно.

Также хочу добавить, что это хоть и конкурирующие программы, но лично я считаю, что не взаимоисключающие. У меня установленны сразу две на смартфоне. С вайбера можно бесплатно звонить и переписываться, а с ватсапа только обмениваться сообщениями. По отдельности конечно более функционален вибер, но как мессенджер (что это такое?) WhatsApp куда приятнее, это опять же имхо. Так что удобнее использовать их в тандеме (что это значит?).

Очевидные преимущества

Я думаю, многие уже после прочитанного выше поняли, что же нам дают Viber и WhatsApp, но все-таки.

1. Два этих приложения отлично экономят наш бюджет. Теперь достаточно лишь класть деньги на телефон для оплаты интернета. А то, что мы бы потратили на связь, можно оставить себе.
2. Очень быстро и удобно обмениваться с вашими знакомыми и друзьями всем чем угодно — видео, фото, рассказами.
3. Ваш аккаунт — это ваш номер телефона! Не нужна долгая регистрация, а все контакты с вашего телефона сразу синхронизируются с приложением.
4. Абсолютно не ограниченное ничем общение. «Давай вконтакте спишемся, а то дорого по телефону говорить» — в прошлом! Говорите с кем угодно хоть сутки напролет.

История создания Viber и WhatsApp

А после вдохновляющих речей про преимущества этих двух программ, предлагаю вам узнать об истории их создания. Думаю, это будет вам интересно.

Начнем с вайбера.

Был, да и есть сейчас такой человек — Тальмон Марко. Он то и основал Viber вместе с Игорем Магазиником в 2010 году. После получения ученой степени в области компьютерных технологий и менеджмента он поехал работать в Азию, где испытывал огромные неудобства со связью: Skype плохо поддерживал звонки, а отправлять смс было слишком дорого. Тогда ему и пришла идея создать Viber.

В первый раз продукт запустили в AppStore и только в Израиле. В первый день его установило 18 человек, но уже через три недели 31 000. А после появления Viber в мировом Appstore, менее чем за месяц пользователей стало около 2 миллионов.

С такой бешено возростающей популярностью компании даже не приходится ничего тратить на раскрутку, люди делают все сами.

У WhatsApp другая история.

Вацап создал Ян Кум, который родился в Украине, в городке Фастов. Он продал свое творение Facebook. На тот момент ему было всего 36 лет. Эта социальная сеть купила WhatsApp за 16 млрд долларов и выплатила еще 3 млрд команде разработчиков через четыре года.

Forbes оценил состояние Яна в 6,8 млрд долларов. Причем очень иронично, что та сделка по продаже вотсапа проходила в белом здании, которое ранее было центром социальной помощи — Ян Кум приходил туда для получения талонов на питание.

Вот и сам счастливый миллиардер Ян Кум.

Как пользоваться мобильным приложением WhatsApp

Теперь, после мучительно интересной теории, опробуем на практике их мобильные версии. Для начала, вацап.

Так, вы скачали мобильное приложение WhatsApp. Открываем его и видим пять вкладок в нижней части экрана:

1. Избранное
2. Статус
3. Контакты
4. Чаты
5. Настройки

Давайте просмотрим каждую, чтобы вы поняли устройство приложения и ваши возможности его использования.

Первая вкладка — «Избранное». Это список контактов, которые вы занесли в список важных. Использовать эту вкладку можно, например, если у вас много контактов, но с несколькими из них вы общаетесь достаточно часто. Занеся их в список избранных вы избавите себя от постоянного искать этих людей в массе других.

Далее, перейдя по следующей вкладке, можно изменить свой статус. Нужно это для того, чтобы ваши знакомые не беспокоили вас звонками и сообщениями, когда вы заняты. Статус можно выбрать из представленных шаблонов или же, кликнув на текущий статус написать что-то свое.

Далее идут ваши контакты. Они автоматически синхронизируются с контактами на вашем телефоне, что очень удобно. Здесь, серым цветом, отображаются статусы контактов, если у них есть WhatsApp. Также прямо здесь вы можете добавить новый контакт, нажав на плюсик справа сверху.

В следующей вкладке список ваших чатов. Это история вашей переписки с какими-либо контактами. Нажав на любой, вы можете перейти к диалогу. Также есть возможность создать новый диалог, нажав на иконку с карандашом и листком в правом верхнем углу. Или же удалить старый диалог, нажав на кнопку «изменить» в левом верхнем углу экрана. Рядом с диалогами появятся красные минусы, нажав на которые вы подтвердите удаление.

Чуть ниже надписи изменить есть надпись «Списки рассылки». Нажав на нее можно выбрать контакты, которым вы отошлете одно и то же сообщение. Это очень удобно, например, если вы хотите собрать своих друзей в каком-то месте. Отсылаете всем нужным сообщение. Очень быстро и удобно.

Вот так (как на скриншоте ниже) выглядит диалоговое окно ватсап. На зеленом фоне справа ваши сообщения, на сером слева — вашего собеседника. Сверху имя контакта и его аватар (фото профиля).

Обратите внимание на строку набора сообщения. Чтобы появилась клавиатура, нажмите на пустое место в строке набора. Справа от нее будет иконка фотоаппарата и микрофон.

Фотоаппарат открывает приложение камеры, откуда вы можете сделать снимок и моментально отослать его собеседнику. В этой же камере есть последние сделанные вами снимки, их также можно отослать. Микрофон — это голосовое сообщение, удерживайте на нем палец и говорите. Эту запись получит ваш собеседник и сможет прослушать.

Левее строки набора сообщения есть стрелочка. Нажмите на нее и появится меню. Вы можете отправить вашему собеседнику фото, видео, местоположение или контакт. Соответственно, первая вкладка позволит сделать фото прямо из приложения, а фотоархив — это ваши сделанные ранее фото на гаджете.

Последняя вкладка — это настройки. Не советую обходить ее стороной. Так как изначально, например, все фото в диалоге сохраняются к вам на устройство, что лично мне не очень нравится. Так что давайте настроим приложение, что бы оно работало как хотим мы.

Перейдя по первой надписи «О программе» мы можем посмотреть номер текущей версии приложения, а также обратиться к службе поддержки WhatsApp.

Если ваш друг еще не знает о вацап, а вы хотите с ним пообщаться, отправьте ему сообщение с приглашением по смс или электронной почте, нажав на «Рассказать другу».

Далее можно настроить свой профиль. Нажав на круг, можно выбрать себе аватар. Можно также изменить имя и статус.

Далее можно настроить вашу учетную запись. Изменить настройки приватности, номер или даже удалить ее.

Есть и настройки чата. Здесь можно выбрать обои, которые будут отображаться в качестве фона сообщений в диалоге. Перейдя по «Автозагрузка медиа» можно настроить то, о чем я ранее упомянул. Чтобы вацап не засорял память вашего гаджета, вы можете отключить автозагрузку фото, аудио и так далее.

Если вы не хотите, чтобы вотсап шумел по каждому поводу, то отключите все или же выборочно его уведомления в соответствующем разделе.

Кстати, ваши чаты можно одним нажатием пальца удалить или же увековечить в архиве, если пролистать настройки до самого низа.

Ну вот и все. Нехитрый и удобный мессенджер. Кстати, недавно появилась официальная возможность установить Ватсап на компьютер или использовать его онлайн (через веб-браузер).

Как пользоваться мобильным приложением Viber

А теперь давайте разберемся с вибером.

По интерфейсу он достаточно похож на WhatsApp, тут мы видим разве что новые функции.

Тут также 5 вкладок, но они уже другие:

1. Чаты
2. Вызовы
3. Контакты
4. Паблик
5. Еще

Первая — «чаты» — это диалоги с вашими контактами.

Вверху есть 2 вкладки: Все и Группы. С помощью вайбера вы можете создавать группы из контактов и общаться со всеми сразу, наподобие конференции.

Для того, чтобы создать группу, нажмите фиолетовую кнопку с соответствующим названием.

Выберите нужные для группы контакты и готово.

Далее вкладка «вызовы». Как я говорил, тут можно звонить, поэтому присутствуют пропущенные, входящие и исходящие вызовы как в обычном телефоне.

Если нажать на серую полоску с надписью «открыть клавиатуру», то можно будет набрать номер вручную.

Далее идут ваши «контакты», которые, также как и в случае с WhatsApp, автоматически синхронизируются с телефонными.

Сверху можно отсортировать их по наличию вайбера, а еще добавить новый контакт, нажав на плюс.

Следующая вкладка — это «паблик чаты». Это групповые чаты по интересам, которые вы можете читать. Получается что-то наподобие социальной сети.

Во вкладке «еще» вы можете изменить имя профиля и аватар.

Можно поделиться Viber в соц сетях. Давайте походим по вкладкам и узнаем для чего они.

В правом верхнем углу, рядом с настройками профиля, есть QR код. Это ваш личный код, который можно отсканировать и увидеть ваш профиль, а при желании и добавить вас в контакты.

Сделать это можно, нажав на кнопку «сканировать QR код». Откроется специальная камера, поместите в квадрат код, чтобы отсканировать его.

Перейдя в раздел Viber Out можно пополнить ваш счет вибер, чтобы совершать звонки на номера не зарегистрированные в вайбере.

Еще тут есть магазин наклеек. Это различные наборы картинок, которые вы можете использовать при общении в Viber. Они платные, но не все, некоторые можно приобрести бесплатно на компьютере или же получить тематические картинки в праздники.

Из вкладки еще можно добавить контакт, указав его номер или же отсканировав QR код.

Теперь перейдем в настройки. Они находятся все в том же «еще».

В настройках конфиденциальности можно указать, хотите ли вы, чтобы другие пользователи видели что вы в сети или же что просмотрели сообщение.

Еще тут можно внести контакты в «черный список» и они больше не смогут связаться с вами через Viber. В самом низу можно отключить учетную запись.

Можно настроить уведомления, которые Viber будет вам отсылать.

В разделе «вызовы и сообщения» можно указать, хотите ли вы получать входящие звонки не от пользователей вибер. Также тут можно удалить всю историю сообщений или же отослать ее по почте.

В «настройках мультимедиа» можно отказаться от того, чтобы вайбер автоматически сохранял все фото из диалогов к вам на устройство. Отключить загрузку фотографий при мобильном интернете, а также удалить все голосовые сообщения.

В настройках Экрана можно изменить фоновую картинку диалогов, а также ориентацию окна.

В общих настройках можно перейти к управлению контактами.

Тут можно синхронизировать контакты Viber c вашей адресной книгой или icloud. Соответственно, в случае надобности, можно их и отключить.

В «информации» можно посмотреть версию вашего приложения.

Теперь давайте перейдем в «чаты» и откроем любой диалог.

В левом верхнем углу будет имя контакта и информация о том, в сети он или нет. Правее будет иконка трубки телефона, нажав на которую вы моментально позвоните контакту с которым ведете диалог, и все это бесплатно.

В строке написания сообщения будет иконка «+», нажав на которую вы сможете поделиться с собеседником вашим фото, видео, рисунком, расположением, аудио, анимацией.

Нажав на иконку медведя, вы получите доступ к стикерам. А удерживая значок микрофона, сможете послать аудиосообщение.

Нажав на шестеренку, в окне диалога в верхнем правом углу можно настроить фоновое изображение диалога, его участников, а также можно добавить контакт из диалога в черный список.

Вот и все с мобильным приложением. Давайте попробуем установить Viber на компьютер.

Вибер и ватсап на компьютер. Обзор Viber на ПК

Также вибер и вацап есть не только на мобильные устройства, но и на пк. Ватсап чуть раньше выпустил официальное приложение для компьютера. До этого момента его можно было установить на копм только через эмулятор (программу, которая имитирует Андроид на пк). Подробную инструкцию можете посмотреть по приведенной чуть выше ссылке.

Вайбер тоже уже выпустил программу на компьютер, скачать ее можно прямо с оффициального сайта Viber.

Возиться с эмулятором все-таки не так прикольно, куда удобнее использовать оптимизированное приложение. Поэтому я с вами разберу только вибер на пк. Так как ватсап на компьютер — это абсолютная копия мобильного приложения и смотреть там нечего.

Так, вы скачали Viber. Устанавливаем его, кликнув на скачанный нами файл. После установки открываем вибер через появившийся на рабочем столе ярлык.

Сразу после первого запуска вайбер спрашивает нас, есть ли его приложение на вашем мобильном телефоне.

Поскольку аккаунт viber привязан к мобильному телефону, то ответ «нет» программу не устроит, и для начала работы вам придется скачать приложение на ваш телефон.

Как только вы обзавелись мобильной версией вайбера, на вопрос можем ответить «да» и ввести свой мобильный номер телефона.

После ввода придется подтвердить ваш номер телефона.

Для этого откройте ваше мобильное приложение. Там на весь экран появится код активации, который вы можете использовать на вашем компьютере.

Ну вот, мы вошли. Давайте изучим интерфейс программы, которая, кстати, очень похожа на Skype.

Сверху меню со всеми возможными функциями. Чуть ниже иконки вкладок.

1. Диалоги
2. Контакты
3. Открытые чаты
4. Номиронабиратель

Диалоги — это история сообщений с людьми.

Контакты — это те пользователи, которых вы добавили в контакты на телефоне. Все они автоматически синхронизируются с Viber. Справа от контакта может появиться логотип Viber, это будет означать, что у этого человека он есть.

Можно отсортировать контакты, сделав так, чтобы отображались только те, у кого вайбер есть. Для этого нажмите кнопочку «только viber», которая находится над контактами.

Так называемый «номеронабиратель» имитирует телефон. С него вы можете совершать обычные платные звонки, и звонить даже тем, у кого нет Viber. Эта функция называется «Viber out». Чтобы можно было ей воспользоваться, для начала пополните счет Viber, нажав на $0.00 в верхнем правом углу окна программы.

Во вкладке «открытые чаты» мы можем найти подобие социальной сети. Тут можно выбрать чаты по интересам, подписаться на них и видеть во вкладке слева. Просматривать и читать сообщения знаменитостей или же интересных вам людей. Принцип тот же, что и у twitter.

Там же, рядом с вашим балансом, есть иконка шестеренка.

Оттуда мы можем перейти к настройкам Viber. Выбрать язык, отключить уведомления и прочее можно сделать там.

Также можно выбрать фон ваших диалогов из довольно большой галереи.

Вот и само окно диалога, слева ваши диалоги с другими контактами, справа смайлики и стикеры. В окне сообщения с помощью иконок можно загрузить фотографию. А также открыть или скрыть окно смайликов.

В правом верхнем углу есть две фиолетовые кнопки, с их помощью можно послать контакту видео или аудио звонок. Кликнув правой кнопкой мыши по фону диалогового окна можно получить доступ к вышеперечисленным функциям по средству выбора из списка.

Достаточно удачно интегрированы все хорошие решения других мессенджеров и социальных сетей. Пользоваться удобно.

Итоги

Мы научились пользоваться двумя очень полезными программами, которые экономят наши деньги и делают общение еще более удобным и неограниченным. Хороших вам переписок и всего наилучшего!

В последнее время функционал обоих приложений стал практически идентичным и выбор между Вибером и Вацапом многие делают просто на основании каких-то своих личных предпочтений.

Фэйсбук, ютуб, телеграмм и другие уж слишком частые ошибки

Разберём, как правильно по-русски писать названия многочисленных мессенджеров, которыми вы пользуетесь ежедневно. Не забудем упомянуть и многими любимые социальные сети и напомним, с какой буквы пишется слово «интернет» (спойлер: со строчной!).

Правильно: мессенджер

(Оговоримся сразу, что во всех карточках будем давать только русскоязычный вариант написания. В оригинале, разумеется, писать тоже можно, и ошибкой это считаться не будет)

Начнём с общего названия всех сервисов для быстрого обмена сообщениями — мессенджеров. Слово заимствовано в конце 90-х из английского языка (messenger — «посланник»). В оригинале, как мы видим, нет никакой буквы «д». Но даже школьники, не прогуливающие уроки английского, знают, что g даёт звук [дж]. Вот и по-русски пишем близко к оригинальному произношению. В общем, вы уловили наш месседж. Вариант «мессенджер» уже даже успел войти в русский орфографический словарь РАН. Гугл по этому запросу тоже находит максимальное количество результатов (больше двух миллионов) против почти 600 тысяч для «мессенжера» и 50 тысяч «месседжера».

Правильно: написать в фейсбуке

Известная социальная сеть в англоязычном сегменте интернета, которой, впрочем, активно пользуются и на наших просторах. К фейсбуку много вопросов. Как всё-таки нужно писать название — через «э» или «е», в кавычках или без, куда ставить ударение и с каким предлогом употреблять — «на фейсбуке» или «в фейсбуке».

Правописание подчиняется общему негласному правилу для иностранных слов: слышим «э», но пишем «е». Кириллицей название писать стали достаточно давно, при этом заключая его в кавычки: социальная сеть «Фейсбук». Но вскоре в неформальной письменной речи от кавычек и заглавной буквы избавились: «Ты уже опубликовал пост в фейсбуке?». А потом и многие СМИ приобщились. Слово так часто употребляется, что все знают, о чём идёт речь. И лишний раз подчёркивать кавычками — не имеет смысла. Ударение в английском языке ставится на первый слог (фЕйсбук), а вот в русском языке «Грамота.ру» рекомендует делать акцент на последний слог по аналогии с «ноутбуком» и «покетбуком». Но это не строгая норма, поэтому может быть вариативно. А вот предлог только «в», потому что «в социальной сети». И пожалуйста — никакой «лицокнига».

Правильно: ютьюб

Название видеосервиса YouTube (от англ. «You» — ты, «Tube» — труба или телевизор) читается как «ютьюб». Так его и стоит и писать. Правда, «Грамота.ру» всё же отмечает, что это разговорный вариант. А «ютуб» — ещё более разговорный и нарушающий какие-либо правила. Это почти как iTunes называть «Тунцом». Нейтральной по стилистике, судя по всему, остаётся версия написания латинскими буквам, но «ютьюб» тоже приемлем.

Правильно: зайти во «ВКонтакте»

Держитесь, сейчас будет неожиданно. Наш ответ фейсбуку, социальная сеть «ВКонтакте», нарушает все мыслимые и немыслимые правила — начиная от употребления сразу двух прописных буквы в начале слова (хотя это отнюдь не аббревиатура) и заканчивая кавычками. Таково официальное название сайта, хотя по правилам русского языка должно быть что-то вроде «В контакте» (по аналогии с журналом «За рулём»). Поэтому в СМИ нередко можно встретить каламбуры вроде: «Читайте нас в фейсбуке, твиттере и во «ВКонтакте»». Поскольку предлог «во» выглядит убого, лучше писать все же «в социальной сети «ВКонтакте».

Правильно: вотсап

Мессенджер WhatsApp признан не только одним из самых популярных среди россиян, но и самым многообразным по вариантам написания. Какие только не встречались: «вотсап», «вацап», «васапп», «вотс-апп». Существуют некие правила транскрипции, которыми мы руководствуемся. Например, произношение. Произносится слово как «вотсап» (если точнее, «уотс-ап»), соответственно и писать рекомендуем именно так — «вотсап». Хотя самым распространённым вариантом, по мнение гугла, остаётся «Ватсап» — 10800000 результатов, когда как «Вотсап» всего лишь 855000, а «Вацап» — 670000.

«Сегодняшняя ошибка может стать завтрашней нормой»: действительно ли русский язык стал хуже

Слово ещё не вошло в обиход так, как фейсбук или инстаграм, и уж тем более не закреплено в словарях, поэтому рекомендуем выбрать наиболее подходящий, на наш взгляд, вариант «Вотсап» И не пренебрегайте кавычками, иногда они бывают полезными.

Правильно: вайбер

Как только мы узнали, что мессенджер Viber стал вторым по популярности в России, тут же решили включить его в нашу подборку. Проблема с написанием примерно такая же, как и с мессенджером. Для тех, кто умеет читать на английском, всё понятно: транскрипция Viber [vaɪbə] — «Вайбер». Но есть и те, кто учил, например, в школе немецкий, а там как пишется, так и читается. То есть «Вибер». Слово не зафиксировано в словарях русского языка, поэтому спор не закрыт. Но будем помнить, что доменные имена обычно всё-таки пишут по-английски. А значит, и читать их нужно соответствующе.

Правильно: телеграм

Телеграмма — это срочное сообщение, переданное телеграфом, которое посылали вместо смс на дни рождения (и не только). А «Телеграм» — это мессенджер, ещё одно детище Паши Дурова. Всё бы ничего, но водятся любители удваивать на конце согласную: «Телеграмм», «Инстаграмм». Хотя для этого никаких поводов нет. В оригинале будет Telegram и (Instagram), где, как видно, никаких удвоений нет.

Правильно: твиттер

Вроде бы ничего сложного: транслитерация социальной сети twitter будет «Твиттер». Две буквы «т» там и там. Запутать могут однокоренные от твиттера слова: «твит», «ретвит», «твитнуть», которые пишутся с одной «т». Кстати, с 2014 года слово твиттер зафиксировано русским орфографическим словарём, так что просто запоминаем верный вариант

Правильно: блогер

 Да-да, «блогер» нужно писать с одной буквой «г», даже если вы многократно встречали на просторах сети загадочного «блоггера». Для иноязычных слов типично удвоение корневого согласного перед суффиксом, а вот в русском языке подобная практика не прижилась.

Правильно: интернет

Бесконечный предмет споров интернет-холиваров. Интернет — имя нарицательное, пишется со строчный буквы, без кавычек, а ещё прекрасно склоняется. Например, «Скачать в интернете», «Отдохнуть от интернета» или «Подключиться к интернету».

Самый популярный мессенджер среди россиян — WhatsApp. По данным ВЦИОМ на февраль 2021 года, им чаще всего пользуются 73% опрошенных. В тройку самых востребованных также входят Viber (26%) и Telegram (18%).

Предпочтения пользователей меняются в зависимости от возраста:

• молодежь от 18 до 24 лет чаще переписывается в Telegram (34%);
• среди людей в возрасте от 25 до 34 лет наиболее популярен WhatsApp (84%);
• пользователи от 35 до 44 лет выбирают WhatsApp (77%) и Viber (28%);
• люди старше 60 лет общаются в WhatsApp (59%).

В этой статье рассмотрим функции мессенджеров и постараемся понять, почему молодежь и люди постарше выбирают для общения разные приложения.

WhatsApp

Активных пользователей в месяц: 2,5 млрд.

Всего скачиваний: 5 млрд в AppStore и Google Play по данным на 2020 год.

История

WhatsApp создали в 2009 году два бывших сотрудника американской компании Yahoo — Брайан Эктон и Ян Кум.

В феврале 2014 года компания Facebook выкупила WhatsApp за $19 млрд. Основатели мессенджера продолжили работу в команде до 2019 года, когда у них возникли разногласия по поводу обмена данными с материнской компанией.

В январе 2021 года приложение обновило политику конфиденциальности, и это вызвало недовольство пользователей. Возникли слухи, что новые правила требуют обмена приватной информацией из профиля в мессенджере с компанией Facebook. В ответ на опасения WhatsApp опубликовал на своем сайте раздел с часто задаваемыми вопросами, в котором объяснил, что обновление не угрожает безопасности личных данных пользователей.

Однако эта ситуация не повлияла на популярность сервиса. Согласно статистике от июля 2021 года, WhatsApp — наиболее часто используемый мессенджер в мире.

Функции

Сообщения и мультимедиа:

• Текстовые и голосовые сообщения.
• Возможность прикреплять фото, видео, документы до 100 МБ, делиться местоположением.
• Встроенный редактор фото.
• Бесплатные стикеры.
• Аудио- и видеозвонки.

Групповые чаты:

• Беседы до 256 пользователей.
• Аудио- и видеоконференции до 8 пользователей.

Безопасность и приватность:

• Режим исчезающих сообщений, при котором они будут удалены спустя 7 дней.
• Сквозное шифрование чатов — доступ к ним есть только у собеседников, а на серверах данные хранятся в зашифрованном виде.
• Возможность удалять сообщения после отправки (собеседник будет видеть надпись о том, что сообщение удалено).

Для владельцев малого бизнеса доступен сервис WhatsApp Business. С ним можно добавлять в профиль каталоги товаров и услуг, сортировать чаты для отслеживания новых заказов и оплаты, создавать автоматические ответы на часто задаваемые вопросы клиентов.

Telegram

Активных пользователей в месяц: 500 млн.

Всего скачиваний: 540 млн в AppStore и Google Play по данным на 2020 год.

История

Telegram разработали основатели «ВКонтакте» Павел и Николай Дуровы в 2013 году. Братья хотели сделать мессенджер, свободный от рыночного давления и любых ограничений, налагаемых государством.

Такая позиция вызвала проблемы с властями. Федеральная служба безопасности потребовала ключи шифрования Telegram, но Дуровы настаивали на том, что это технически невозможно: данные переписок хранятся на устройствах пользователей и не принадлежат мессенджеру. Суд постановил оштрафовать компанию, а в апреле 2018 года вынес решение об ограничении доступа к приложению в России.

Однако Telegram продолжал работать. Даже у государственных ведомств были официальные каналы, например «СТОПКОРОНАВИРУС.РФ» от Министерства Здравоохранения, «Роскомнадзор» от Федеральной службы по надзору в сфере связи, информационных технологий и массовых коммуникаций.

В июне 2020 года запрет был официально снят. По словам представителей Генеральной прокуратуры РФ, это стало возможным благодаря готовности Telegram помочь в борьбе с терроризмом и экстремизмом.

Функции

Сообщения и мультимедиа:

• Текстовые, голосовые, видеосообщения.
• Бесплатные стикеры.
• Возможность прикреплять фото, видео, документы до 2 ГБ, делиться местоположением.
• Встроенный редактор фото.
• Режим ускорения и замедления полученных голосовых и видеосообщений.
• Экспорт сообщений и файлов из других мессенджеров, например из WhatsApp.
• Отложенная отправка сообщений.

Групповые чаты:

• Беседы до 200 000 пользователей.
• Аудио- и видеоконференции до 1 000 пользователей.

Безопасность и приватность:

• Режим секретного чата, доступ к которому возможен только с устройства, на котором он был начат.
• Режим исчезающих сообщений, при котором они автоматически удаляются через 24 часа, 7 дней или месяц.
• Сквозное шифрование чатов.
• Возможность редактировать и удалять сообщение в течение 48 часов.

Кроме приватных чатов, в Telegram есть сообщество. Пользователи могут создавать и подписываться на каналы — микроблоги, в которых авторы публикуют сообщения и статьи, а фолловеры читают их. В 2020 году появилась возможность комментировать посты.

Можно разрабатывать ботов — виртуальных помощников, которые реагируют на команды: переводят текстовые сообщения в голосовые, проверяют файлы на вирусы, предлагают фильм на вечер и не только. Их часто используют в бизнесе, чтобы освободить сотрудников от рутинных задач. Бот может отвечать на часто задаваемые вопросы и принимать оплату через онлайн-кассу.

Viber

Активных пользователей в месяц: 823 млн.

Всего скачиваний: 1,2 млрд в AppStore и Google Play по данным на 2020 год.

История

Мессенджер создали израильские разработчики Талмон Марко и Игорь Магазинник в 2010 году. В марте 2014 года японская корпорация Rakuten Group выкупила приложение за $900 млн. На тот момент в Viber уже было зарегистрировано 300 млн пользователей.

Мессенджер сотрудничал с Facebook, но в 2020 году разорвал связи с этой платформой и перестал рекламироваться на ней.

Функции

Сообщения и мультимедиа:

• Текстовые, голосовые и видеосообщения.
• Возможность прикреплять фото, видео, документы до 200 МБ, делиться местоположением.
• Встроенный редактор фото.
• Встроенный переводчик сообщений внутри диалога.
• Бесплатные и платные стикеры.

Групповые чаты:

• Беседы до 250 пользователей.
• Создание сообществ с неограниченным числом пользователей.
• Аудио- и видеозвонки до 35 пользователей.

Безопасность и приватность:

• Возможность удалять и редактировать сообщения.
• Скрытые чаты, найти которые можно только после ввода установленного на них PIN-кода.
• Исчезающие сообщения — режим, который через установленный пользователем промежуток времени (от 10 секунд до 24 часов) уничтожит переданную информацию и предупредит, если тот, с кем вы общались, сделает ее скриншот.
• Сквозное шифрование чатов.

Общаться по Viber можно даже с теми, у кого не установлен этот мессенджер. Тариф Viber Out позволяет совершать международные звонки дешевле, чем по телефону.

Telegram выделяется тем, что в нем можно отправлять видеосообщения помимо голосовых и текстовых. Групповые чаты рассчитаны на наибольшее количество пользователей по сравнению с другими мессенджерами. В приложении есть каналы и возможность создавать ботов. Возможно, именно благодаря нестандартным возможностям Telegram привлекает молодую аудиторию.

WhatsApp — лидер по количеству пользователей, но по функциям уступает. В приложении нельзя редактировать сообщения. Максимальный объем документа во вложении — 100 МБ, это меньше, чем в других мессенджерах. Вероятно, поэтому им пользуются те, кому не нужно много функций, в том числе представители старшего поколения.

В Viber можно удалять и редактировать сообщения, создавать секретные чаты, но эти функции есть и в других приложениях. Возможно, его выбирают из-за тарифа Viber Out, чтобы недорого звонить тем, кто не пользуется мессенджерами вообще.

Мессенджеры Вайбер и Вотсап имеют широкую аудиторию подписчиков во всем мире и в России. Набор базовых услуг, предоставляемых этим сервисами, примерно одинаков: пересылка месседжей, отправка мультимедийных файлов, голосовые вызовы. При этом нельзя сказать, что мессенджеры полностью идентичны, поскольку каждое из приложений имеет собственные преимущества.

Сравнение между Viber vs WhatsApp

Далее проведем подробное рассмотрение достоинств и недостатков каждого из мессенджеров, и определим в чем разница между вайбером vs ватсапом

Простая регистрация

Авторы WhatsApp стремились сделать использование сервиса максимально простым. Абонентам сервиса не нужно придумывать специальный login, тратить время на поиск контактов. Для идентификации юзера служит телефонный номер, список контактов формируется из адресной книги телефона.

Регистрация внутри Вайбер организована по аналогичному принципу.

Дополнительно подписчик сервиса может настроить страницу под себя: разместить авторскую аватарку, сообщить дополнительные личные сведения. Все эти действия выполняются только по желанию юзера.

Интерфейс и дизайн

Экран приложения Вотсап оформлен в приятных зеленых тонах, как и логотип. Интерфейс сервиса логичный и понятный. Некоторым юзерам количество представленных опций кажется излишним. При получении ссылки на сайт адресат письма сразу видит краткое содержание и может удалить маловажную информацию, не тратя времени на просмотр неинтересных роликов.

Основной тон Viber – фиолетовый значок. Интерфейс упрощен настолько, что отдельные абоненты указывают на недостаток нужных сведений. Другая часть пользователей, напротив, отдает предпочтение подобному минимализму.

Доступность

Можно признать Вотсап более доступным для пользователей благодаря способности работать для устаревших версий операционных систем. Население стран, где часто используются смартфоны устаревших моделей, предпочитает общаться при помощи WhatsApp, он там популярнее.

Набор опций

Абоненты Вотсап и Вайбер могут:

• отсылать и получать текстовые послания;
• обмениваться звуковыми месседжами;
• пересылать фото- и видеоматериалы.

Отосланные сообщения Вотсап помечаются сведениями о времени отправки и моменте доставки. Пометка в виде птички на отправленном месседже начинает светиться синим цветом с момента, когда получатель ознакомится с содержанием послания. Мессенджер позволяет создавать групповые чаты из нескольких собеседников, назначать адресатами одного и того же письма нескольких человек. Кроме того, через приложение можно отправлять файлы в виде таблиц, презентаций, PDF. По качеству изображения при видеозвонках Вотсап не уступает аналогичным мессенджерам. Видеообщение может быть организовано для группы, содержащей до пяти участников.

Абоненты Вайбер могут заменять тексты стикерами, выбирая картинки из широкого набора. Стикеры бывают как неподвижные, так и анимированные. Организация групповых бесед также возможна через Вайбер. Это приложение часто используют для рабочего общения, проведения совещаний. В программе реализована опция, которая называется Viber Out, позволяющая связываться через сервис не только с абонентами мессенджера, но и с обладателями телефонных номеров с различными тарифными планами. Начиная с 2016 г. программа поддерживает функцию совершения перевода денег на банковские карты.

Защита информации

Оба приложения отличаются высоким уровнем безопасности благодаря современным способам кодирования информации. Сведения, содержащиеся в профиле и переписке, недоступны для просмотра посторонними лицами, включая команду разработчиков. Идентификация при входе в аккаунт требует специального кода.

Веб-версии

Разработчики WhatsApp предназначали свое детище для общения через мобильник и не предусматривали создания веб-версий. Позднее, для пользователей, предпочитающих общаться через ПК, была разработана версия мессенджера, пригодная для использования на ОС Виндовс 7 и 10, а также Мак. Приложение для ПК работает без прохождения процедуры установки. В остальном веб-версия ничем не отличается от мобильного варианта сервиса

Компьютерная версия Viber требует загрузки и установки на ПК. Набор полезных и интересных функций в этом варианте программы несколько шире. К примеру, юзер может собственноручно создавать стикеры, а затем отправлять картинки своим контактам. Такой опции мобильная версия не предусматривает.

Сколько стоит

Ранее первый год использования Вотсап не требовал оплаты. Начиная со второго года использования, предусмотрена абонплата в размере 1$ ежегодно. С 18 января 2016 года мессенджер стал бесплатным. Лица, использующие Вотсап для рассылки коммерческих предложений, могут использовать для этого дополнительные платные опции.

Приложение Вибер бесплатное. Возможно подключение дополнительных функций за отдельную плату, например, Вайбер Аут. За отдельные оригинальные наборы стикеров или смайликов придется заплатить. Некоторые стикеры выбывают из разряда платных и становятся бесплатными.

История возникновения Вайбер и Вотсап

Приложение Вотсап появилось раньше, чем Вайбер. Авторство идеи создания подобной программы принадлежит выходцу из Советского Союза Яну Куму, семья которого эмигрировала в Соединенные Штаты. Детство мальчика прошло вблизи Киева. Учась в обычной советской школе, Ян серьезно заинтересовался информатикой, начал самостоятельно осваивать программирование.

Оказавшись в подростковом возрасте в США, Ян продолжил занятия, поступил в университет. Одаренный молодой человек уже в студенческие годы привлек интерес специалистов компании Yahoo и получил предложение о сотрудничестве. Опыт работы с коллективом программистов высшей квалификации помог юноше сформироваться, как специалисту высокого уровня, свободно ориентироваться на рынке компьютерных технологий.

Уволившись из Yahoo в 2007 году, Ян Кум занялся разработкой собственного проекта: создания приложения, которое позволит общаться посредством телефона, подключенного к интернету. Через два года программа была представлена на рынке. Уникальность проекта заключается в том, что разработка мессенджера, удобного для использования, не потребовала ни огромных финансовых вложений, ни подключения специалистов по маркетингу. Российские пользователи получили возможность подключаться к сервису одновременно со всем миром – в 2009 году.

Создатель сервиса представлял себе Ватсап как альтернативу традиционным SMS и MMS посланиям. Обладатели смартфонов оценили возможности приложения. К 2013 г. количество абонентов мессенджера превысило 200 млн. В феврале 2014 г. WhatsApp поменял хозяина, перейдя к компании Facebook. Для совершения этой покупки владельцам Фейсбука пришлось расстаться с третьей частью свободных денег.

Сервис Вайбер был выпущен на рынок в 2010 г., но вначале работал в тестовом режиме. Авторов приложения, среди которых есть специалисты из разных концов света, объединяет компания Вайбер Медиа. Проработав над совершенствованием программы около двух лет, разработчики расширили спектр функций мессенджера, добавив опцию видеосвязи.

После расширения функционала программы многие пользователи стали использовать messenger Вайбер вместо Скайпа. Авторы приложения подчеркивали, что, в отличие от Skype, Viber предназначен исключительно для мобильных устройств. В 2014 г. мессенджер перешел в собственность фирмы Rakuten.

Выбор между WhatsApp и Viber

В заключение подведем итог, что лучше вайбер или ватсап.

Человек, впервые устанавливающий мессенджер на телефон или ПК, может поинтересоваться: что выбрать WhatsApp и Viber. Отзывы пользователей говорят о том, что набор возможностей, предоставляемых сервисами, не слишком отличается. Некоторым пользователям все же могут показаться существенными различия характеристик мессенджеров. Вибер традиционно считается более подходящим для переписки внутри групповых чатов. Вотсап подходит для мобильных устройств разных лет выпуска, предлагает абонентам возможность пристально следить за сроками отправки и доставки месседжей.

Поскольку чемпиона в таком поединке определить невозможно, пользователям рекомендуется установить оба приложения и наладить общение с абонентами одного и другого сервиса.

Здравствуйте, уважаемые читатели блога Start-Luck. Наверное, среди моих читателей найдутся те, кто никогда не пользовался ISQ, а только слышал об этой программе. Сегодня мы поговорим о двух аналогах этого приложения.

Действительно интересно, почему некогда столь популярное приложение осталось лишь в закромах памяти и рекламе на главной странице Mail.ru? По какой причине от него отказались все пользователи в одно мгновение?

Сегодня я расскажу вас что такое ватсап и вайбер. Как двум приложениям удалось завоевать публику, почему люди, как правило, устанавливают обе эти программы себе на телефон, в чем между ними разница и чему отдать предпочтение, если вы еще не определились с выбором.

Обо всем этим в нашей сегодняшней статье.

История появления и назначение

Некогда, сперва на ПК, а затем и на телефоны страны и мира начали устанавливать ISQ. Это такой мессенджер, который позволял людям общаться при помощи сообщений. Вы связывались с аккаунтом, заносили его в записную книжку, а затем могли написать мгновенное послание, которое он тут же видел на экране своего смартфона.

В то же время, на телефоне был еще и скайп. Благодаря ему люди могли общаться еще и голосом, вот только скорость мобильного интернета оставляла желать лучшего, не хватало ее на тяжеленькую программку и связываться с друзьями можно было только посредством подключения к wi-fi.

Тогда-то и появился Viber и WatsApp. Эти два приложения сочетали в себе возможность отправлять короткие (и не очень) сообщения, общаться с друзьями голосом.

Трафик приложения съедали чуть меньше, да и скорость мобильного интернета выросла, поэтому в большинстве случаев вы уже могли отказаться от телефонии, а спокойно могли позвонить другу не напрямую, через оператора.

Все это сильно экономило деньги. Смс и звонки стоили в разы больше, чем мегабайты, которые нередко раздавались даже бесплатно, чтобы привлечь клиентов. Люди только начинали использовать мобильный телефон для серфинга в интернете.

Основные причины выбора

Не знаю как вас, а меня заинтересовал вопрос, что популярнее? Интересно, что Вайбер за всю историю существования скачали и оценили 10, 5 миллионов пользователей, а ватсап почти 58. В чем же кроется причина такого ажиотажа вокруг этих двух программ и чем они отличаются?

Убежден, что технические характеристики здесь не при чем. Редкий пользователь изучает подобные показатели, особенно когда речь идет о бесплатных приложениях. Намного проще попробовать все на собственном опыте, чем изучать непонятные термины.

Основная причина популярности, на мой взгляд, точно такая же, как и среди социальных сетей. Люди сидят там, где в основном находятся их друзья.

Смотрите, позвонить или передать сообщение при помощи Viber или WatsApp можно только тому человеку, у которого на телефоне стоит точно такое же приложение. Если его нет, то максимум что вы можете сделать – позвонить по обычной телефонии и попросить его установить программу, чтобы потом написать ему.

Естественно, если у всех друзей установлен Вибер, нет смысла устраивать революцию и просить отказаться от приложения в пользу Вацапа. Человек скорее сам выкинет старый пароль и логин, а затем заведет новый в другой программе. Вот вам и ответ почему пользователи выбирают тот или иной вариант.

Различия

Ну а теперь мне бы хотелось дать небольшую объективную оценку каждого приложения. Не думаю, что это может каким-то образом повлиять на выбор пользователей, вы все равно будете пользоваться обеими программами или той, что пользуется спросом среди ваших друзей, но все же. Об этом упомянуть необходимо, хотя бы вкратце.

Дудлы. У вайбера есть свой графический редактор, в котором вы можете пальцем нарисовать какую-то каляку-маляку и передать ее своему знакомому. В WatsApp такой возможности нет.

Также с недавних пор Viber добавил возможность отправлять gif-изображения из популярных банков, что это такое вы можете узнать из моей предыдущей публикации, ну а как это сделать читайте в статье про вибер. Также в нем есть возможность передать фотографию из банка с картинками или видео с YouTube.

Кстати, через вайбер вы можете послать знакомым еще и деньги. У приложения есть свой собственный электронный кошелек.

Выбор звуков. А в этой категории побеждает как раз WatsApp. У вайбера стоит стандартный гудок, уведомляющий о том, что пришло новое сообщение. Вотсап дает возможность пользователю самому выбрать как телефон оповестит пользователя о том, что пришло новое сообщение.

Согласитесь, эти отличия не дают возможности ответить на вопрос что же, все-таки лучше, слишком они незначительные, тем не менее, в остальном программы совершенно одинаковые, а потому и пользуются спросом 50х50:

И там, и там вы не понесете никаких расходов, если будете общаться с пользователями той же программы что и вы. Даже если вы звоните или пишете за границу, цены не станут выше. Оплата производится только оператору (мегафон, билайн и т.д.) за мобильный интернет, а если вы подключены к бесплатному вай-фаю, то и подобных расходов не будет.

Кстати, возможно вас заинтересует моя предыдущая статья как вывести деньги с телефона и на что их можно тратить кроме общения.

Что еще? Обе программы дают возможность обмениваться картинками, видео, аудио файлами, документами и даже ссылками.

Вы можете создавать группы и общаться сразу с несколькими своими друзьями.

Программы привязываются к номеру мобильного телефона, вы без проблем можете увидеть в списке контактов кто кроме вас пользуется тем же приложением. Никаких логинов и паролей запоминать не придется.

Даже если вы не находитесь в сети (приложение не открыто) вас придет уведомление о новом сообщении. Софт работает в фоновом режиме.

Вот в принципе и все. Если вас интересует какие еще полезные приложения и программы существуют для облегчения жизни пользователей, а также как с ними работать, могу предложить вам курс «Секреты продуктивной работы».

Если у вас остались силы, не пропустите также статью о четырех программах, которые обязательно должны быть установлены на любой компьютер. Не забывайте подписываться на рассылку и группу Start-Luck Вконтакте. До новых встреч и удачи.

WhatsApp

Original author(s)	Brian Acton, Jan Koum
Developer(s)	Meta Platforms, Will Cathcart (Head of WhatsApp)[1][2]
Initial release	January 2009; 14 years ago
Stable release(s) [±]
iOS 22.13.74  / 27 June 2022; 6 months ago Android 2.22.16.74[3]  / 29 July 2022; 5 months ago Windows 2.2226.6[4]  / 1 August 2022; 5 months ago macOS 2.2222.12  / 27 June 2022; 6 months ago
Preview release(s) [±]
Multiple releases Android — 2.21.16.2 Date — July 26, 2021; 17 months ago«WhatsApp Messenger APKs». APKMirror.
Written in	Erlang[5]
Operating system	Android, iOS, KaiOS (There are also Mac OS, Windows and web app clients that work only when connected to the mobile app client.)
Size	178 MB (iOS)[6] 33.85 MB (Android)[7]
Available in	40 (iOS) and 60 (Android)[8] languages
Type	Instant messaging, VoIP
License	Proprietary software with EULA «European Region»[9] «others»[10]
Website	www.whatsapp.com

WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms.^[11] It allows users to send text and voice messages,^[12] make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content.^[13][14] WhatsApp’s client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers.^[15] The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up.^[16] In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client.^[17][18]

The client application was created by WhatsApp Inc. of Mountain View, California, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion.^[19][20] It became the world’s most popular messaging application by 2015,^[21][22] and had more than 2 billion users worldwide by February 2020.^[23] 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.^[21]

History

WhatsApp Timeline
Feb 24, 2009	Jan Koum incorporates WhatsApp in California.[24]
Aug 2009	WhatsApp 2.0 is released on the App Store for the iPhone.[25]
Oct 2009	Brian Acton persuades five ex-Yahoo! friends to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and is granted co-founder status.[24]
Aug 2010	WhatsApp support for Android OS is added.[26]
Jan 21, 2011	WeChat, a messenger app, is founded.[27] It eventually starts to compete with WhatsApp and becomes very popular in China.
Apr 2011	In Series A round, WhatsApp founders agree to take $7 million from Sequoia Capital on top of their $250,000 seed funding, after months of negotiation with Sequoia partner Jim Goetz.[24]
May 2011	SnapChat, a competing photo messaging app, is founded.[28]
Jan 6, 2012	An unknown hacker publishes a website that makes it possible to change the status of an arbitrary WhatsApp user, as long as the phone number was known.[29][30]
Aug 2012	The WhatsApp support staff announce that messages were encrypted in the «latest version» of the WhatsApp software for iOS and Android (but not BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian), without specifying the cryptographic method.[31]
Feb 2013	WhatsApp’s user base grows to about 200 million active users and its staff to 50.[24]
Jul 2013	Sequoia invests another $50 million in Series B round, valuing WhatsApp at $1.5 billion.[32]
Jul 16, 2013	WhatsApp changes its profit model with an annual subscription fee of $1 after a free first year.[33][34]
Aug 2013	Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging service, launches.[35]
Aug 2013	WhatsApp introduces voice messaging.[36]
Feb 19, 2014	Facebook, Inc. announces its acquisition of WhatsApp for US$19 billion, its largest acquisition to date.[37] Facebook pays $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units granted to WhatsApp’s founders.[38]
Mar 2014	Someone discovers a vulnerability in WhatsApp encryption on the Android application that allows another app to access and read all of a user’s chat conversations within it.[39]
Nov 2014	WhatsApp introduces Read Receipts, which show when a message is read by a recipient. Within a week, WhatsApp introduces an update allowing users to disable this feature.[40]
Jan 21, 2015	WhatsApp launches WhatsApp Web, a web client which can be used through a web browser by syncing with the mobile device’s connection.[41]
Jan 21, 2015	WhatsApp announces its policy on cracking down on 3rd-party clients, including WhatsApp+. Users would not be able to use WhatsApp’s services at all until the third-party apps are uninstalled.[43]
Dec 2015	WhatsApp is briefly shut down in Brazil after it refuses to place wiretaps on certain WhatsApp accounts.[44] It is shut down in Brazil again on May 2016 and in July 2016.[45]
Jan 18, 2016	Jan Koum announces that WhatsApp will no longer charge its users a $1 annual subscription fee.[46][47] There is still no clear plan for monetizing WhatsApp.[48]
Mar 2016	Diego Dzodan, a Facebook executive, is arrested by Brazilian federal police after Facebook fails to turn over information from his WhatsApp messaging account into a judge’s request for a drug trafficking investigation.[49][50]
Mar 2, 2016	WhatsApp introduces its document-sharing feature, initially allowing users to share PDF files with their contacts.[51]
Apr 5, 2016	WhatsApp and Open Whisper Systems announce that they have added end-to-end encryption to «every form of communication» on WhatsApp, and that users could now verify each other’s keys.[52][53][54]
May 10, 2016	WhatsApp is introduced for both Windows and Mac operating systems.[55]
January 2018	WhatsApp launches WhatsApp Business, a platform for small enterprises where they can connect with customers.[56]
April 2018	WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum announces he’s leaving the company after clashes with Facebook, saying “I sold my users’ privacy”.[57]
September 2018	WhatsApp launches group audio and video calls.[58]
v t e

2009–2014

WhatsApp was founded in February 2009^[59] by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, former employees of Yahoo!. It was initially not intended to be used as a messaging app.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2009, after Koum purchased an iPhone, he and Acton, keen to jump into what they foresaw as a newly burgeoning multi-million dollar app industry created by the Apple App Store, Koum came up with an idea for an app to provide dynamic information about the people listed in your address book: it would show statuses for each person, for example: «if you were on a call, your battery was low, or you were at the gym.» 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.^[59]

Koum named the app WhatsApp to sound like «what’s up». On February 24, 2009, he incorporated^[60] 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».^[59]

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 although not using a relevant 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.»^[59]

Suddenly a new kind of instant messaging facility had been born out of the chance capability that users found more useful than the app’s intended purpose. Fishman said «At some point it sort of became instant messaging … We started using it as ‘Hey how are you?’ And then someone would reply.» Jan watched the changing statuses on a Mac Mini at his town house in Santa Clara, and realized he had unintentionally created a messaging service.»^[59]

WhatsApp 2.0 was released in August 2009 with 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.^[24] 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.^[24] After months at beta stage, the application launched in November 2009 on the App Store, exclusively for the iPhone. Koum then hired a friend in Los Angeles, Chris Peiffer, to develop a BlackBerry version, which arrived two months later.^[24] Subsequently, WhatsApp for Symbian OS was added in May 2010, and for Android OS in August 2010.^[61] In 2010 Google made multiple acquisition offers for WhatsApp, which were all declined.^[62]

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.^[24]

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.^[63][64][65]

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.^[24] Some time in 2013^[66] WhatsApp acquired Santa Clara-based startup SkyMobius, the developers of Vtok,^[67] a video and voice calling app.^[68]

In a December 2013 blog post, WhatsApp claimed that 400 million active users used the service each month.^[69]
The year 2013 ended with $148 million in expenses, of which $138 million in losses.^[70]

2014–2015

On February 19, 2014, one year after a venture capital financing round at a $1.5 billion valuation,^[71] Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms) announced it was acquiring WhatsApp for US$19 billion, its largest acquisition to date.^[20] At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-capital-backed company in history.^[19] Sequoia Capital received an approximate 5,000% return on its initial investment.^[72] 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.^[73] Employee stock was scheduled to vest over four years subsequent to closing.^[20] Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss of service, leading to anger across social media.^[74]

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».^[75][76][77]

The acquisition caused many users to try, or move to, other message services. Telegram claimed that it acquired 8 million new users;^[78] and Line, 2 million.^[79]

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.^[80][81] 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.^[80]

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.^[82]

In August 2014, WhatsApp was the most popular messaging app in the world, with more than 600 million users.^[83] By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over 30 billion messages every day.^[84] 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.^[85] That month, WhatsApp had over 800 million users.^[86][87] By September 2015, it had grown to 900 million;^[88] and by February 2016, one billion.^[89]

Voice calls between two accounts were added to the app in March and April 2015.^[90]

On November 30, 2015, the Android WhatsApp client made links to messaging service Telegram unclickable and uncopyable.^[91][92][93] Multiple sources confirmed that it was intentional, not a bug,^[93] and that it had been implemented when the Android source code that recognized Telegram URLs had been identified.^[93] (The word «telegram» appeared in WhatsApp’s code.^[93]) Some considered it an anti-competitive measure;^[91][92][93] 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.^[94][95] 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.^[89][96]

By June 2016, the company’s blog reported more than 100 million voice calls per day were being placed on WhatsApp.^[97]

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.^[98] Also in November 2016, Facebook ceased collecting WhatsApp data for advertising in Europe.^[99] Later that month, video calls between two accounts were introduced.^[100]

On February 24, 2017, (WhatsApp’s 8th birthday), WhatsApp launched a new Status feature similar to Snapchat and Facebook stories.^[101]

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».^[99]

In September 2017, WhatsApp’s co-founder Brian Acton left the company to start a nonprofit group,^[102] later revealed as the Signal Foundation, which developed the WhatsApp competitor Signal.^[103] He explained his reasons for leaving in an interview with Forbes a year later.^[104] WhatsApp also announced a forthcoming business platform to enable companies to provide customer service at scale,^[105] and airlines KLM and Aeroméxico announced their participation in the testing.^{[106][107][108][109]} Both airlines had previously launched customer services on the Facebook Messenger platform.

In January 2018, WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Business for small business use.^[110]

In April 2018, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum announced he would be leaving the company.^[111] By leaving before November 2018, due to concerns about privacy, advertising, and monetization by Facebook,^[112] Acton and Koum gave up $1.3 billion in unvested stock options.^[113] Facebook later announced that Koum’s replacement would be Chris Daniels.^[114]

Later in September 2018, WhatsApp introduced group audio and video call features.^[115][116] In October, the «Swipe to Reply» option was added to the Android beta version, 16 months after it was introduced for iOS.^[117]

On October 25, 2018, WhatsApp announced support for Stickers. But unlike other platforms WhatsApp requires third-party apps to add Stickers to WhatsApp.^[118]

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.^[119]

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.^[120] WhatsApp was announced to be the 3rd most downloaded mobile phone app of the decade 2010–2019.^[121]

Since 2020

In early 2020, WhatsApp launched its «dark mode» for iPhone and Android devices – a new design consisting of a darker palette.^[122] 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.^[123] 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.^{[124][125][126][127]}

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.^[128][129]

In January 2021, WhatsApp announced a 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 would not apply in the EU, since it violates the principles of GDPR.^[130][131] Facing criticism, WhatsApp postponed the update to May 15, 2021,^[132][133] but said they had no plans to limit functionality of or nag users who did not approve the new terms.^[134]

In March 2021, WhatsApp started rolling out support for third-party animated stickers, initially in Iran, Brazil and Indonesia,^[135] then worldwide.^[136]

In July 2021, WhatsApp announced forthcoming support for sending uncompressed images and videos in 3 options: Auto, Best Quality and Data Saver,^[137] and end-to-end encryption for backups stored in Facebook’s cloud.^[138] The company was also testing multi-device support, allowing Computer users to run WhatsApp without an active phone session.^[139]

On October 4, 2021, Facebook had its worst outage since 2008, which also affected other platforms owned by Facebook, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.^[140][141]

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).^[142]

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.^[143]

In May 2022, the file upload limit was raised from 100 MB to 2 GB, and maximum group size increased to 512 members.^[144]

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.^[145]

Platform support

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.^[146] In April 2015, support for Samsung’s Tizen OS was added.^[147]
The oldest device capable of running WhatsApp was the Symbian-based Nokia N95 released in March 2007. (As of June 2017, WhatsApp is no longer compatible with it.)

In August 2014, WhatsApp released an update, adding support for Android Wear smartwatches.^[148]

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.^[149]

On February 26, 2016, WhatsApp announced they would cease support for BlackBerry (including BlackBerry 10), Nokia Series 40, and Symbian S60,^[150][151] as well as older versions of Android (2.2), Windows Phone (7.0), and iOS (6), by the end of 2016.^[152] BlackBerry, Nokia Series 40, and Symbian support was then extended to June 30, 2017.^[153] In June 2017, support for BlackBerry and Series 40 was once again extended until the end of 2017, while Symbian was dropped.^[154]

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.^[155] In July 2018, it was announced that WhatsApp would soon be available for KaiOS feature phones.^[156][157]

In October 2019, WhatsApp officially launched a new fingerprint app-locking feature for Android users.^[158]

In August 2021, WhatsApp launched a feature that allows for chat history to be transferred between mobile operating systems. The feature launched only on the Samsung phones with plans to expand to Android and iOS in the future.^[159]

WhatsApp Web

WhatsApp was officially made available for PCs through a web client, under the name WhatsApp Web,^[160] 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).^[161][162]
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.^[163] 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.^{[164][165][166]}

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.^[167] 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.^[168] 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.^[169]
Since April 2022, the multi-device beta is integrated by default in WhatsApp and users cannot check old messages on the web version anymore.^[170][171]

Microsoft Windows and Mac

On May 10, 2016, the messaging service was introduced for both Microsoft Windows and macOS operating systems. Recently, WhatsApp added support for video calls and voice calls from their desktop clients. Similar to the WhatsApp Web format, the app, which will be synced with a user’s mobile device, is available for download on the website. It supports OS versions of Windows 8 and OS X 10.10 and higher.^{[172][173][174]}

Apple iPad

As of May 2022, WhatsApp does not run on the iPad.^[175]

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.^[176]

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.»^[177]

Technical

WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).^[178] Upon installation, it creates a user account using one’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,^[179] while the iOS version used the phone’s Wi-Fi MAC address instead of IMEI.^[180][181] A 2012 update now generates a random password on the server side.^[182]
Alternatively a user can send to any contact in 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 dual-SIM devices may not be compatible with WhatsApp, though non-official workarounds can be used to install the app.^[183]

In February 2015, WhatsApp introduced a voice calling feature; this helped WhatsApp to attract a completely different segment of the user population.^[184][185] WhatsApp’s voice codec is Opus,^{[186][187][188]} which uses the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) and linear predictive coding (LPC) audio compression algorithms.^[189] WhatsApp uses Opus at 8–16 kHz sampling rates.^[186][188] On November 14, 2016, WhatsApp added a video calling feature for users across Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone devices.^[190][191]

In November 2017, WhatsApp released a new feature that would let its users delete messages sent by mistake within a time frame of 7 minutes.^[192]

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).^[193]

WhatsApp follows a «store and forward» mechanism for exchanging messages between two users. When a user sends a message, it first travels to the WhatsApp server where it is stored. Then the server repeatedly requests the receiver to acknowledge receipt of the message. As soon as the message is acknowledged, the server drops the message; it is no longer available in the database of the server. The WhatsApp server keeps the message only for 30 days in its database when it is not delivered (when the receiver is not active on WhatsApp for 30 days).^{[194][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.^[195] 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.^[196] 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.^[197] 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.^[198] They expressed the concern that regular WhatsApp users still could not tell the difference between end-to-end encrypted messages and regular messages.^[198]

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.^[52][199] 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.^[200] According to a white paper that was released along with the announcement, WhatsApp messages are encrypted with the Signal Protocol.^[201] WhatsApp calls are encrypted with SRTP, and all client-server communications are «layered within a separate encrypted channel».^[201] The Signal Protocol library used by WhatsApp is open-source and published under the GPLv3 license.^[201][202]

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.^[203]

The application can store encrypted copies of the chat messages onto the SD card, however chat messages are also stored unencrypted in the SQLite database file «msgstore.db».^[204]

WhatsApp Payments

WhatsApp Payments (marketed as WhatsApp Pay) is a peer-to-peer money transfer feature that is currently only available in India. WhatsApp has received permission from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enter into partnership with multiple banks in July 2017^[205] to allow users to make in-app payments and money transfers using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).^[206] UPI enables account-to-account transfers from a mobile app without having any details of the beneficiary’s bank.^[207] On November 6, 2020, WhatsApp announced that it had received approval for providing a payment service, although restricted to maximum of 20 million users initially. The service was subsequently rolled out.^[208]

WhatsApp cryptocurrency hope , 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 involves over 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.^[209]

In June 2019, Facebook formally announced that the project would be named Libra, and that the company planned for a digital wallet named «Calibra» to be integrated into Facebook and WhatsApp.^[210] After financial regulators in the US, Europe, and other regions raised concerns, Calibra was rebranded to Novi in May 2020, and Libra was rebranded to Diem in December 2020. Facebook has stated that Novi would require a government-issued ID for verification and the wallet app would have fraud protection.^{[211][212][213]}

Meta ended its Novi project on September 1, 2022.^[214][215]

Controversies and criticism

Misinformation

WhatsApp has repeatedly imposed limits on message forwarding in response to the spread of misinformation in countries such as India and Australia. The measure, first introduced in 2018 to combat spam, was expanded and remained active in 2021. WhatsApp has stated the forwarding limits have helped to curb the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19.^{[216][217][218]}

Murders in India

In July 2018, WhatsApp encouraged people to report fraudulent or inciting messages after lynch mobs in India murdered innocent people because of malicious WhatsApp messages falsely accusing the victims of intending to abduct children.^[219]

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.^[220] Furthermore, it has been reported that US$3 million has been spent in illegal off-the-books contributions related to this practice.^[221]

Researchers and journalists have called on WhatsApp parent company, Facebook, to adopt measures similar to those adopted in India and restrict the spread of hoaxes and fake news.^[220]

Security and privacy

WhatsApp was initially criticized for its lack of encryption, sending information as plaintext.^[222] Encryption was first added in May 2012.^{[223][224][225]} End-to-end encryption was only fully implemented in April 2016 after a two-year process. As of September 2021, it is known that WhatsApp makes extensive use of outside contractors and artificial intelligence systems to examine user messages, images and videos; and turns over to law enforcement metadata including critical account and location information.^[226]

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».^[227] 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.^[228][229]

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.^[230][231]

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.^[232]

In November 2019, WhatsApp released a new privacy feature that let users decide who can add them to groups.^[233]

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.^{[234][235][236]}

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.^[237] The bug was discovered by Check Point in August 2019 and reported to WhatsApp. It was fixed in version 2.19.246 onwards.^[238][239]

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.^[240]

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.^[241]

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 is heavily redacted due to being an ongoing case, it doesn’t disclose whether this alleged tampering with the app’s end-to-end encryption or simply Google accessing user backups.^{[clarification needed][242]}

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.^{[130][131][243]} The enforcement of the privacy policy was postponed from February 8 to May 15, 2021,^[132][244] WhatsApp announced they have no plans to limit the functionality of the app for those who don’t approve the new terms. WhatsApp do not limit the app: they simply insist it cannot be used without acceding.^[134]

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) will have access to a user’s information. This new encryption feature adds an additional layer of protection to chat backups stored either on Apple iCloud or Google Drive.^[245]

On November 29, 2021, an FBI document was uncovered by Rolling Stone, revealing that WhatsApp responds to warrants and subpoenas from the law enforcement within minutes, providing user metadata to the authorities. The metadata includes things like the user’s contact information and their address book.^[246]

In January 2022, an unsealed surveillance application revealed that WhatsApp started tracking 7 users from China and Macau in November 2021, based on a request from the DEA investigators. The app collected data on who the users contacted and how often, as well as when and how they were using the app. This is reportedly not a singular 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.^[247]

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.^[248]

In September 2022, a critical security issue in WhatsApp Android’s video call feature was reported. The integer overflow bug resulted in malicious users being able 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.^[249]

National Health Service of the United Kingdom

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.^[250]

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.^[251]

WhatsApp snooping scandal

In May 2019, WhatsApp was attacked by hackers who installed spyware on a number of victims’ smartphones.^[252] 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.^[253]

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).^[254] 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.^{[255][256][257]} 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.^[258]

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.^[259]

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.^[260]

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.^{[261][262][263]}

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.»^[264][265]

Terrorism

In December 2015, it was reported that a terrorists organization ISIS had been using WhatsApp to plot the November 2015 Paris attacks.^[266] According to The Independent, ISIS also uses WhatsApp to traffic sex slaves.^[267]

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.^[268]

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.^[269]

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 counselling of admins of these groups.^[270] 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.^[271]

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.^[272]

Scams and malware

There are numerous ongoing scams on WhatsApp that let hackers spread viruses or malware.^[273] 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.^[274] 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.^[275]

Another application called GB WhatsApp is considered malicious by cybersecurity firm Symantec because it usually performs some unauthorized operations on end-user devices.^[276]

Bans

China

WhatsApp is owned by Meta, whose main social media service has been blocked in China since 2009.^[277] In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China.^[278][279]

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.^[280][281] It was blocked permanently until Meta answers September 2022.^[282]

Turkey

Turkey temporarily banned WhatsApp in 2016, following the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey.^[283]

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.^[284] 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.^[285]

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.^[286] Once again, the block was lifted following an appeal, after less than 24 hours.^[287]

Brazil’s Central Bank issued an order to 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.”^[288][289]

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.^[290] Users are to be charged USh.200/= per day to access these services according to the new law set by parliament.^[291]

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The United Arab Emirates banned WhatsApp video chat and VoIP call applications^[292][293] in as early as 2013^[294] 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).^[294] Their app ToTok has received press suggesting it is able to spy on users.^[293][295]

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.^[296]

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.^[297]

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.^[298]

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».^[299]

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.^[300]

WhatsApp Business

In September 2017, WhatsApp confirmed rumors^[301][302] that they were building and testing two new tools for businesses.^[109]
The apps were launched in January 2018,^[303] separated by the intended userbase:

• A WhatsApp Business app for small companies^[304]
• 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^[305] 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.^[306][307]

User statistics

WhatsApp handled ten billion messages per day in August 2012,^[308] growing from two billion in April 2012,^[309] and one billion the previous October.^[310] On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages.^[311] According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp «has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to international calling on landlines».^[312]

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.^[313][314]

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.^[83][315]

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.^[316]

By February 2017, WhatsApp had over 1.2 billion users globally,^[317] reaching 1.5 billion monthly active users by the end of 2017.^[318]

In January 2020, WhatsApp registers over 5 billion installs on Google Play Store making it only the second non-Google app to achieve this milestone.^[319]

As of February 2020, WhatsApp had over 2 billion users globally.^[320][321]

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,^[322] then 70 million in October 2014, making users in India 10% of WhatsApp’s total user base.^[323] In February 2017, WhatsApp reached 200 million monthly active users in India.^[324]

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.^[325] WhatsApp’s group chat feature is reportedly used by many Israeli families to stay in contact with each other.^[326]

Competition

WhatsApp competes with a number of messaging services. They include services like iMessage (estimated 1.3 billion active users^[327]), WeChat (1.2 billion active users^[328][329]), Telegram (500 million users^[330]), Viber (260 million active users^[331]), LINE (217 million active users^[332]), and Signal (over 50 million active users^[333]). Both Telegram and Signal in particular were reported to get registration spikes during WhatsApp outages and controversies.^{[334][335][336]}

WhatsApp has increasingly drawn its innovation from competing services,^[337] such as a Telegram-inspired web version^[338] and features for groups.^[339] In 2016, WhatsApp was accused of copying features from a then-unreleased version of iMessage.^[340]

See also

• Comparison of instant messaging clients
• Comparison of user features of messaging platforms
• Comparison of VoIP software
• Criticism of Facebook
• Instagram
• List of most-downloaded Google Play applications

References

External links

WhatsApp

Original author(s)	Brian Acton, Jan Koum
Developer(s)	Meta Platforms, Will Cathcart (Head of WhatsApp)[1][2]
Initial release	January 2009; 14 years ago
Stable release(s) [±]
iOS 22.13.74  / 27 June 2022; 6 months ago Android 2.22.16.74[3]  / 29 July 2022; 5 months ago Windows 2.2226.6[4]  / 1 August 2022; 5 months ago macOS 2.2222.12  / 27 June 2022; 6 months ago
Preview release(s) [±]
Multiple releases Android — 2.21.16.2 Date — July 26, 2021; 17 months ago«WhatsApp Messenger APKs». APKMirror.
Written in	Erlang[5]
Operating system	Android, iOS, KaiOS (There are also Mac OS, Windows and web app clients that work only when connected to the mobile app client.)
Size	178 MB (iOS)[6] 33.85 MB (Android)[7]
Available in	40 (iOS) and 60 (Android)[8] languages
Type	Instant messaging, VoIP
License	Proprietary software with EULA «European Region»[9] «others»[10]
Website	www.whatsapp.com

WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms.^[11] It allows users to send text and voice messages,^[12] make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content.^[13][14] WhatsApp’s client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers.^[15] The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up.^[16] In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client.^[17][18]

The client application was created by WhatsApp Inc. of Mountain View, California, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion.^[19][20] It became the world’s most popular messaging application by 2015,^[21][22] and had more than 2 billion users worldwide by February 2020.^[23] 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.^[21]

History

WhatsApp Timeline
Feb 24, 2009	Jan Koum incorporates WhatsApp in California.[24]
Aug 2009	WhatsApp 2.0 is released on the App Store for the iPhone.[25]
Oct 2009	Brian Acton persuades five ex-Yahoo! friends to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and is granted co-founder status.[24]
Aug 2010	WhatsApp support for Android OS is added.[26]
Jan 21, 2011	WeChat, a messenger app, is founded.[27] It eventually starts to compete with WhatsApp and becomes very popular in China.
Apr 2011	In Series A round, WhatsApp founders agree to take $7 million from Sequoia Capital on top of their $250,000 seed funding, after months of negotiation with Sequoia partner Jim Goetz.[24]
May 2011	SnapChat, a competing photo messaging app, is founded.[28]
Jan 6, 2012	An unknown hacker publishes a website that makes it possible to change the status of an arbitrary WhatsApp user, as long as the phone number was known.[29][30]
Aug 2012	The WhatsApp support staff announce that messages were encrypted in the «latest version» of the WhatsApp software for iOS and Android (but not BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian), without specifying the cryptographic method.[31]
Feb 2013	WhatsApp’s user base grows to about 200 million active users and its staff to 50.[24]
Jul 2013	Sequoia invests another $50 million in Series B round, valuing WhatsApp at $1.5 billion.[32]
Jul 16, 2013	WhatsApp changes its profit model with an annual subscription fee of $1 after a free first year.[33][34]
Aug 2013	Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging service, launches.[35]
Aug 2013	WhatsApp introduces voice messaging.[36]
Feb 19, 2014	Facebook, Inc. announces its acquisition of WhatsApp for US$19 billion, its largest acquisition to date.[37] Facebook pays $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units granted to WhatsApp’s founders.[38]
Mar 2014	Someone discovers a vulnerability in WhatsApp encryption on the Android application that allows another app to access and read all of a user’s chat conversations within it.[39]
Nov 2014	WhatsApp introduces Read Receipts, which show when a message is read by a recipient. Within a week, WhatsApp introduces an update allowing users to disable this feature.[40]
Jan 21, 2015	WhatsApp launches WhatsApp Web, a web client which can be used through a web browser by syncing with the mobile device’s connection.[41]
Jan 21, 2015	WhatsApp announces its policy on cracking down on 3rd-party clients, including WhatsApp+. Users would not be able to use WhatsApp’s services at all until the third-party apps are uninstalled.[43]
Dec 2015	WhatsApp is briefly shut down in Brazil after it refuses to place wiretaps on certain WhatsApp accounts.[44] It is shut down in Brazil again on May 2016 and in July 2016.[45]
Jan 18, 2016	Jan Koum announces that WhatsApp will no longer charge its users a $1 annual subscription fee.[46][47] There is still no clear plan for monetizing WhatsApp.[48]
Mar 2016	Diego Dzodan, a Facebook executive, is arrested by Brazilian federal police after Facebook fails to turn over information from his WhatsApp messaging account into a judge’s request for a drug trafficking investigation.[49][50]
Mar 2, 2016	WhatsApp introduces its document-sharing feature, initially allowing users to share PDF files with their contacts.[51]
Apr 5, 2016	WhatsApp and Open Whisper Systems announce that they have added end-to-end encryption to «every form of communication» on WhatsApp, and that users could now verify each other’s keys.[52][53][54]
May 10, 2016	WhatsApp is introduced for both Windows and Mac operating systems.[55]
January 2018	WhatsApp launches WhatsApp Business, a platform for small enterprises where they can connect with customers.[56]
April 2018	WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum announces he’s leaving the company after clashes with Facebook, saying “I sold my users’ privacy”.[57]
September 2018	WhatsApp launches group audio and video calls.[58]
v t e

2009–2014

WhatsApp was founded in February 2009^[59] by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, former employees of Yahoo!. It was initially not intended to be used as a messaging app.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2009, after Koum purchased an iPhone, he and Acton, keen to jump into what they foresaw as a newly burgeoning multi-million dollar app industry created by the Apple App Store, Koum came up with an idea for an app to provide dynamic information about the people listed in your address book: it would show statuses for each person, for example: «if you were on a call, your battery was low, or you were at the gym.» 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.^[59]

Koum named the app WhatsApp to sound like «what’s up». On February 24, 2009, he incorporated^[60] 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».^[59]

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 although not using a relevant 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.»^[59]

Suddenly a new kind of instant messaging facility had been born out of the chance capability that users found more useful than the app’s intended purpose. Fishman said «At some point it sort of became instant messaging … We started using it as ‘Hey how are you?’ And then someone would reply.» Jan watched the changing statuses on a Mac Mini at his town house in Santa Clara, and realized he had unintentionally created a messaging service.»^[59]

WhatsApp 2.0 was released in August 2009 with 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.^[24] 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.^[24] After months at beta stage, the application launched in November 2009 on the App Store, exclusively for the iPhone. Koum then hired a friend in Los Angeles, Chris Peiffer, to develop a BlackBerry version, which arrived two months later.^[24] Subsequently, WhatsApp for Symbian OS was added in May 2010, and for Android OS in August 2010.^[61] In 2010 Google made multiple acquisition offers for WhatsApp, which were all declined.^[62]

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.^[24]

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.^[63][64][65]

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.^[24] Some time in 2013^[66] WhatsApp acquired Santa Clara-based startup SkyMobius, the developers of Vtok,^[67] a video and voice calling app.^[68]

In a December 2013 blog post, WhatsApp claimed that 400 million active users used the service each month.^[69]
The year 2013 ended with $148 million in expenses, of which $138 million in losses.^[70]

2014–2015

On February 19, 2014, one year after a venture capital financing round at a $1.5 billion valuation,^[71] Facebook, Inc. (now Meta Platforms) announced it was acquiring WhatsApp for US$19 billion, its largest acquisition to date.^[20] At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-capital-backed company in history.^[19] Sequoia Capital received an approximate 5,000% return on its initial investment.^[72] 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.^[73] Employee stock was scheduled to vest over four years subsequent to closing.^[20] Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss of service, leading to anger across social media.^[74]

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».^[75][76][77]

The acquisition caused many users to try, or move to, other message services. Telegram claimed that it acquired 8 million new users;^[78] and Line, 2 million.^[79]

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.^[80][81] 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.^[80]

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.^[82]

In August 2014, WhatsApp was the most popular messaging app in the world, with more than 600 million users.^[83] By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over 30 billion messages every day.^[84] 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.^[85] That month, WhatsApp had over 800 million users.^[86][87] By September 2015, it had grown to 900 million;^[88] and by February 2016, one billion.^[89]

Voice calls between two accounts were added to the app in March and April 2015.^[90]

On November 30, 2015, the Android WhatsApp client made links to messaging service Telegram unclickable and uncopyable.^[91][92][93] Multiple sources confirmed that it was intentional, not a bug,^[93] and that it had been implemented when the Android source code that recognized Telegram URLs had been identified.^[93] (The word «telegram» appeared in WhatsApp’s code.^[93]) Some considered it an anti-competitive measure;^[91][92][93] 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.^[94][95] 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.^[89][96]

By June 2016, the company’s blog reported more than 100 million voice calls per day were being placed on WhatsApp.^[97]

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.^[98] Also in November 2016, Facebook ceased collecting WhatsApp data for advertising in Europe.^[99] Later that month, video calls between two accounts were introduced.^[100]

On February 24, 2017, (WhatsApp’s 8th birthday), WhatsApp launched a new Status feature similar to Snapchat and Facebook stories.^[101]

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».^[99]

In September 2017, WhatsApp’s co-founder Brian Acton left the company to start a nonprofit group,^[102] later revealed as the Signal Foundation, which developed the WhatsApp competitor Signal.^[103] He explained his reasons for leaving in an interview with Forbes a year later.^[104] WhatsApp also announced a forthcoming business platform to enable companies to provide customer service at scale,^[105] and airlines KLM and Aeroméxico announced their participation in the testing.^{[106][107][108][109]} Both airlines had previously launched customer services on the Facebook Messenger platform.

In January 2018, WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Business for small business use.^[110]

In April 2018, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum announced he would be leaving the company.^[111] By leaving before November 2018, due to concerns about privacy, advertising, and monetization by Facebook,^[112] Acton and Koum gave up $1.3 billion in unvested stock options.^[113] Facebook later announced that Koum’s replacement would be Chris Daniels.^[114]

Later in September 2018, WhatsApp introduced group audio and video call features.^[115][116] In October, the «Swipe to Reply» option was added to the Android beta version, 16 months after it was introduced for iOS.^[117]

On October 25, 2018, WhatsApp announced support for Stickers. But unlike other platforms WhatsApp requires third-party apps to add Stickers to WhatsApp.^[118]

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.^[119]

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.^[120] WhatsApp was announced to be the 3rd most downloaded mobile phone app of the decade 2010–2019.^[121]

Since 2020

In early 2020, WhatsApp launched its «dark mode» for iPhone and Android devices – a new design consisting of a darker palette.^[122] 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.^[123] 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.^{[124][125][126][127]}

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.^[128][129]

In January 2021, WhatsApp announced a 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 would not apply in the EU, since it violates the principles of GDPR.^[130][131] Facing criticism, WhatsApp postponed the update to May 15, 2021,^[132][133] but said they had no plans to limit functionality of or nag users who did not approve the new terms.^[134]

In March 2021, WhatsApp started rolling out support for third-party animated stickers, initially in Iran, Brazil and Indonesia,^[135] then worldwide.^[136]

In July 2021, WhatsApp announced forthcoming support for sending uncompressed images and videos in 3 options: Auto, Best Quality and Data Saver,^[137] and end-to-end encryption for backups stored in Facebook’s cloud.^[138] The company was also testing multi-device support, allowing Computer users to run WhatsApp without an active phone session.^[139]

On October 4, 2021, Facebook had its worst outage since 2008, which also affected other platforms owned by Facebook, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.^[140][141]

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).^[142]

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.^[143]

In May 2022, the file upload limit was raised from 100 MB to 2 GB, and maximum group size increased to 512 members.^[144]

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.^[145]

Platform support

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.^[146] In April 2015, support for Samsung’s Tizen OS was added.^[147]
The oldest device capable of running WhatsApp was the Symbian-based Nokia N95 released in March 2007. (As of June 2017, WhatsApp is no longer compatible with it.)

In August 2014, WhatsApp released an update, adding support for Android Wear smartwatches.^[148]

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.^[149]

On February 26, 2016, WhatsApp announced they would cease support for BlackBerry (including BlackBerry 10), Nokia Series 40, and Symbian S60,^[150][151] as well as older versions of Android (2.2), Windows Phone (7.0), and iOS (6), by the end of 2016.^[152] BlackBerry, Nokia Series 40, and Symbian support was then extended to June 30, 2017.^[153] In June 2017, support for BlackBerry and Series 40 was once again extended until the end of 2017, while Symbian was dropped.^[154]

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.^[155] In July 2018, it was announced that WhatsApp would soon be available for KaiOS feature phones.^[156][157]

In October 2019, WhatsApp officially launched a new fingerprint app-locking feature for Android users.^[158]

In August 2021, WhatsApp launched a feature that allows for chat history to be transferred between mobile operating systems. The feature launched only on the Samsung phones with plans to expand to Android and iOS in the future.^[159]

WhatsApp Web

WhatsApp was officially made available for PCs through a web client, under the name WhatsApp Web,^[160] 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).^[161][162]
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.^[163] 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.^{[164][165][166]}

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.^[167] 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.^[168] 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.^[169]
Since April 2022, the multi-device beta is integrated by default in WhatsApp and users cannot check old messages on the web version anymore.^[170][171]

Microsoft Windows and Mac

On May 10, 2016, the messaging service was introduced for both Microsoft Windows and macOS operating systems. Recently, WhatsApp added support for video calls and voice calls from their desktop clients. Similar to the WhatsApp Web format, the app, which will be synced with a user’s mobile device, is available for download on the website. It supports OS versions of Windows 8 and OS X 10.10 and higher.^{[172][173][174]}

Apple iPad

As of May 2022, WhatsApp does not run on the iPad.^[175]

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.^[176]

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.»^[177]

Technical

WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).^[178] Upon installation, it creates a user account using one’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,^[179] while the iOS version used the phone’s Wi-Fi MAC address instead of IMEI.^[180][181] A 2012 update now generates a random password on the server side.^[182]
Alternatively a user can send to any contact in 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 dual-SIM devices may not be compatible with WhatsApp, though non-official workarounds can be used to install the app.^[183]

In February 2015, WhatsApp introduced a voice calling feature; this helped WhatsApp to attract a completely different segment of the user population.^[184][185] WhatsApp’s voice codec is Opus,^{[186][187][188]} which uses the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) and linear predictive coding (LPC) audio compression algorithms.^[189] WhatsApp uses Opus at 8–16 kHz sampling rates.^[186][188] On November 14, 2016, WhatsApp added a video calling feature for users across Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone devices.^[190][191]

In November 2017, WhatsApp released a new feature that would let its users delete messages sent by mistake within a time frame of 7 minutes.^[192]

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).^[193]

WhatsApp follows a «store and forward» mechanism for exchanging messages between two users. When a user sends a message, it first travels to the WhatsApp server where it is stored. Then the server repeatedly requests the receiver to acknowledge receipt of the message. As soon as the message is acknowledged, the server drops the message; it is no longer available in the database of the server. The WhatsApp server keeps the message only for 30 days in its database when it is not delivered (when the receiver is not active on WhatsApp for 30 days).^{[194][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.^[195] 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.^[196] 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.^[197] 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.^[198] They expressed the concern that regular WhatsApp users still could not tell the difference between end-to-end encrypted messages and regular messages.^[198]

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.^[52][199] 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.^[200] According to a white paper that was released along with the announcement, WhatsApp messages are encrypted with the Signal Protocol.^[201] WhatsApp calls are encrypted with SRTP, and all client-server communications are «layered within a separate encrypted channel».^[201] The Signal Protocol library used by WhatsApp is open-source and published under the GPLv3 license.^[201][202]

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.^[203]

The application can store encrypted copies of the chat messages onto the SD card, however chat messages are also stored unencrypted in the SQLite database file «msgstore.db».^[204]

WhatsApp Payments

WhatsApp Payments (marketed as WhatsApp Pay) is a peer-to-peer money transfer feature that is currently only available in India. WhatsApp has received permission from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enter into partnership with multiple banks in July 2017^[205] to allow users to make in-app payments and money transfers using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).^[206] UPI enables account-to-account transfers from a mobile app without having any details of the beneficiary’s bank.^[207] On November 6, 2020, WhatsApp announced that it had received approval for providing a payment service, although restricted to maximum of 20 million users initially. The service was subsequently rolled out.^[208]

WhatsApp cryptocurrency hope , 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 involves over 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.^[209]

In June 2019, Facebook formally announced that the project would be named Libra, and that the company planned for a digital wallet named «Calibra» to be integrated into Facebook and WhatsApp.^[210] After financial regulators in the US, Europe, and other regions raised concerns, Calibra was rebranded to Novi in May 2020, and Libra was rebranded to Diem in December 2020. Facebook has stated that Novi would require a government-issued ID for verification and the wallet app would have fraud protection.^{[211][212][213]}

Meta ended its Novi project on September 1, 2022.^[214][215]

Controversies and criticism

Misinformation

WhatsApp has repeatedly imposed limits on message forwarding in response to the spread of misinformation in countries such as India and Australia. The measure, first introduced in 2018 to combat spam, was expanded and remained active in 2021. WhatsApp has stated the forwarding limits have helped to curb the spread of misinformation regarding COVID-19.^{[216][217][218]}

Murders in India

In July 2018, WhatsApp encouraged people to report fraudulent or inciting messages after lynch mobs in India murdered innocent people because of malicious WhatsApp messages falsely accusing the victims of intending to abduct children.^[219]

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.^[220] Furthermore, it has been reported that US$3 million has been spent in illegal off-the-books contributions related to this practice.^[221]

Researchers and journalists have called on WhatsApp parent company, Facebook, to adopt measures similar to those adopted in India and restrict the spread of hoaxes and fake news.^[220]

Security and privacy

WhatsApp was initially criticized for its lack of encryption, sending information as plaintext.^[222] Encryption was first added in May 2012.^{[223][224][225]} End-to-end encryption was only fully implemented in April 2016 after a two-year process. As of September 2021, it is known that WhatsApp makes extensive use of outside contractors and artificial intelligence systems to examine user messages, images and videos; and turns over to law enforcement metadata including critical account and location information.^[226]

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».^[227] 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.^[228][229]

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.^[230][231]

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.^[232]

In November 2019, WhatsApp released a new privacy feature that let users decide who can add them to groups.^[233]

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.^{[234][235][236]}

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.^[237] The bug was discovered by Check Point in August 2019 and reported to WhatsApp. It was fixed in version 2.19.246 onwards.^[238][239]

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.^[240]

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.^[241]

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 is heavily redacted due to being an ongoing case, it doesn’t disclose whether this alleged tampering with the app’s end-to-end encryption or simply Google accessing user backups.^{[clarification needed][242]}

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.^{[130][131][243]} The enforcement of the privacy policy was postponed from February 8 to May 15, 2021,^[132][244] WhatsApp announced they have no plans to limit the functionality of the app for those who don’t approve the new terms. WhatsApp do not limit the app: they simply insist it cannot be used without acceding.^[134]

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) will have access to a user’s information. This new encryption feature adds an additional layer of protection to chat backups stored either on Apple iCloud or Google Drive.^[245]

On November 29, 2021, an FBI document was uncovered by Rolling Stone, revealing that WhatsApp responds to warrants and subpoenas from the law enforcement within minutes, providing user metadata to the authorities. The metadata includes things like the user’s contact information and their address book.^[246]

In January 2022, an unsealed surveillance application revealed that WhatsApp started tracking 7 users from China and Macau in November 2021, based on a request from the DEA investigators. The app collected data on who the users contacted and how often, as well as when and how they were using the app. This is reportedly not a singular 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.^[247]

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.^[248]

In September 2022, a critical security issue in WhatsApp Android’s video call feature was reported. The integer overflow bug resulted in malicious users being able 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.^[249]

National Health Service of the United Kingdom

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.^[250]

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.^[251]

WhatsApp snooping scandal

In May 2019, WhatsApp was attacked by hackers who installed spyware on a number of victims’ smartphones.^[252] 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.^[253]

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).^[254] 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.^{[255][256][257]} 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.^[258]

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.^[259]

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.^[260]

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.^{[261][262][263]}

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.»^[264][265]

Terrorism

In December 2015, it was reported that a terrorists organization ISIS had been using WhatsApp to plot the November 2015 Paris attacks.^[266] According to The Independent, ISIS also uses WhatsApp to traffic sex slaves.^[267]

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.^[268]

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.^[269]

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 counselling of admins of these groups.^[270] 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.^[271]

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.^[272]

Scams and malware

There are numerous ongoing scams on WhatsApp that let hackers spread viruses or malware.^[273] 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.^[274] 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.^[275]

Another application called GB WhatsApp is considered malicious by cybersecurity firm Symantec because it usually performs some unauthorized operations on end-user devices.^[276]

Bans

China

WhatsApp is owned by Meta, whose main social media service has been blocked in China since 2009.^[277] In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China.^[278][279]

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.^[280][281] It was blocked permanently until Meta answers September 2022.^[282]

Turkey

Turkey temporarily banned WhatsApp in 2016, following the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey.^[283]

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.^[284] 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.^[285]

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.^[286] Once again, the block was lifted following an appeal, after less than 24 hours.^[287]

Brazil’s Central Bank issued an order to 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.”^[288][289]

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.^[290] Users are to be charged USh.200/= per day to access these services according to the new law set by parliament.^[291]

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The United Arab Emirates banned WhatsApp video chat and VoIP call applications^[292][293] in as early as 2013^[294] 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).^[294] Their app ToTok has received press suggesting it is able to spy on users.^[293][295]

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.^[296]

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.^[297]

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.^[298]

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».^[299]

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.^[300]

WhatsApp Business

In September 2017, WhatsApp confirmed rumors^[301][302] that they were building and testing two new tools for businesses.^[109]
The apps were launched in January 2018,^[303] separated by the intended userbase:

• A WhatsApp Business app for small companies^[304]
• 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^[305] 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.^[306][307]

User statistics

WhatsApp handled ten billion messages per day in August 2012,^[308] growing from two billion in April 2012,^[309] and one billion the previous October.^[310] On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages.^[311] According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp «has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to international calling on landlines».^[312]

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.^[313][314]

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.^[83][315]

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.^[316]

By February 2017, WhatsApp had over 1.2 billion users globally,^[317] reaching 1.5 billion monthly active users by the end of 2017.^[318]

In January 2020, WhatsApp registers over 5 billion installs on Google Play Store making it only the second non-Google app to achieve this milestone.^[319]

As of February 2020, WhatsApp had over 2 billion users globally.^[320][321]

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,^[322] then 70 million in October 2014, making users in India 10% of WhatsApp’s total user base.^[323] In February 2017, WhatsApp reached 200 million monthly active users in India.^[324]

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.^[325] WhatsApp’s group chat feature is reportedly used by many Israeli families to stay in contact with each other.^[326]

Competition

WhatsApp competes with a number of messaging services. They include services like iMessage (estimated 1.3 billion active users^[327]), WeChat (1.2 billion active users^[328][329]), Telegram (500 million users^[330]), Viber (260 million active users^[331]), LINE (217 million active users^[332]), and Signal (over 50 million active users^[333]). Both Telegram and Signal in particular were reported to get registration spikes during WhatsApp outages and controversies.^{[334][335][336]}

WhatsApp has increasingly drawn its innovation from competing services,^[337] such as a Telegram-inspired web version^[338] and features for groups.^[339] In 2016, WhatsApp was accused of copying features from a then-unreleased version of iMessage.^[340]

See also

• Comparison of instant messaging clients
• Comparison of user features of messaging platforms
• Comparison of VoIP software
• Criticism of Facebook
• Instagram
• List of most-downloaded Google Play applications

References

External links