In April 2024, an AI-powered „Smart Assistant“ became widely available in WhatsApp, allowing users to ask it questions or have it complete tasks such as generating images. Channels were initially only available to users in Colombia and Singapore, then later Egypt, Chile, Malaysia, Morocco, Ukraine, Kenya and Peru before becoming widely available in September 2023. 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. It was also not available for iOS users on launch, due to limitations from Apple. The web client was not standalone, and required the user’s phone to stay on and connected to the internet.

• On February 24, 2017, WhatsApp launched a new Status feature similar to Snapchat and Facebook stories.
• In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China.
• By February 2017, WhatsApp had over 1.2 billion users globally, reaching 1.5 billion monthly active users by the end of 2017.
• According to Globes, already by 2013 the application was installed on 92% of all smartphones, with 86% of users reporting daily use.

By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over 30 billion messages every day. Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss of service, leading to anger across social media. Some time in 2013 WhatsApp acquired Santa Clara–based startup SkyMobius, the developers of Vtok, a video and voice calling app. To cover the cost of sending verification texts to users, WhatsApp was changed from a free service to a paid one.

WhatsApp

In October 2024, WhatsApp expanded their chat filter feature, adding the ability for users to create custom lists that contain specific chats of their choice. In October 2020, WhatsApp rolled out a feature allowing users to mute both individuals and group chats forever. In March 2024, Meta announced that WhatsApp would let third-party messaging services enable interoperability with WhatsApp, a requirement of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Local users can text special numbers in the app to launch an in-app shopping process, where they can order groceries. Facing criticism, WhatsApp postponed the update to May 15, 2021, and had no plans to limit functionality of users, nor nag users who did not approve the new terms.

Meta Store

The service became generally available in India and Brazil, and in Singapore for WhatsApp Business transactions only. WhatsApp Payments (marketed as WhatsApp Pay) is a peer-to-peer money transfer feature. WhatsApp calls are encrypted with SRTP, and all client-server communications are „layered within a separate encrypted channel“. According to a white paper that was released along with the announcement, WhatsApp messages are encrypted with the Signal Protocol. 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.

A Wired report noted the attack was able to inject malware via calls to the targeted phone, even if the user did not answer the call. In 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. In September 2022, a critical security issue in WhatsApp’s Android video call feature was reported. This is reportedly not an isolated occurrence, as federal agencies can use the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to covertly track users without submitting any probable cause or linking a user’s number to their identity. The app collected data on who the users contacted and how often, and when and how they were using the app.

Koum then hired a friend in Los Angeles, Chris Peiffer, to develop a BlackBerry version, which arrived two months later. Although Acton was working on another startup idea, he decided to join the company. Koum updated WhatsApp so that everyone in the user’s network would be notified when a user’s status changed. However, when early versions of WhatsApp kept crashing, Koum considered giving up and looking for a new job. Koum named the app WhatsApp to sound like „what’s up“ and it was published on the Apple App Store and BlackBerry App World in May and June 2009 respectively. A month earlier, after Koum purchased an iPhone, he and Acton decided to create an app for the App Store.

In April 2023, the app rolled out a feature that would allow account access across multiple phones, in a shift that would make it more like competitors. In January 2015, WhatsApp launched a web client that allowed users to scan a QR code with their mobile app, mirroring their chats to their browser. 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. In June 2024, improvements were made to voice and video calls, allowing up to 32 participants in video calls, adding audio to screen sharing, and introducing a new codec to increase call reliability. In December 2023, WhatsApp’s „View Once“ feature expanded to include voice messages. This lets users share videos of themselves more quickly, and without adding anything to their device’s gallery.

– Flights in America

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. 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“. Sequoia Capital received an approximate 5,000% return on its initial investment. At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-capital-backed company in history.

This was implemented only on Samsung phones, with plans to expand to Android and iOS „soon“. In August 2021, WhatsApp launched a feature that allows chat history to be transferred between mobile operating systems. In July 2021, WhatsApp announced forthcoming support for end-to-end encryption for backups stored in Facebook’s cloud. Previously between March 2016 and May 2017, only limited file types categorised as images (JPG, PNG, GIF), videos (MP4, AVI), and documents (CSV, DOC/DOCX, PDF, PPT/PPTX, RTF, TXT, XLS/XLSX), were allowed to be shared for file attachments. Voice messages sent this way are deleted after the recipient listens to them the first time. Edited messages were tagged as „edited“ to inform recipients that the content had been modified.

Previously the Android and Nokia Series 40 versions used an MD5-hashed, reversed-version of the phone’s IMEI as a password, while the iOS version used the phone’s Wi-Fi MAC address instead of the IMEI. WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP). The WebView2-based app has been criticised for its sluggish performance, high RAM usage, and requirement to keep the app running in the background to receive push notifications, compared to the previous native version. In 2023, WhatsApp replaced the Electron-based apps with native versions for their respective platforms. Similar to the WhatsApp Web format, the app, which synchronises with a user’s mobile device, is available for download on the website. 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 (and integrated by default in WhatsApp as of April 2022) that is no longer the case.

By default, it is set to disappear in 24 hours, but it can be set for a longer amount of time and can be restricted for viewing by other contacts in the Settings menu. Unlike messages in groups or private chats, channels are not end-to-end encrypted. Users are able to use an avatar as their profile picture or use it for stickers during instant messaging, similar to those offered by Bitmoji or Memoji. Unlike other platforms, WhatsApp requires third-party apps to add Stickers to WhatsApp. In October 2023 they also introduced passkey support, where a user can verify their login with on-device biometrics, rather than SMS.

App Functionality

He and American doctor John Jeffries crossed the English Channel by balloon, becoming the first international air travelers, and he was the first balloonist to fly over several European countries. We’re always introducing new features and updates to help you better express yourself and have more engaged conversations. Over the past few months, we’ve added new features to WhatsApp that make chatting and calling more convenient and fun. Both Telegram and Signal in particular were reported to get registration spikes during WhatsApp outages and controversies. In January 2020, WhatsApp reached over 5 billion installs on Google Play Store making it only the second non-Google app to achieve this milestone. According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp „has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to international calling on landlines“.

• According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp „has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to international calling on landlines“.
• In September 2017, WhatsApp’s co-founder Brian Acton left the company to start a nonprofit group, later revealed as the Signal Foundation, which developed the WhatsApp competitor Signal.
• The developer, WhatsApp Inc., indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features to help make common tasks in the app faster and easier to complete.
• 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.
• Similar to the WhatsApp Web format, the app, which synchronises with a user’s mobile device, is available for download on the website.

Security and privacy

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. On November 29, 2021, an FBI document was uncovered by Rolling Stone, revealing that WhatsApp responds to warrants and subpoenas from law enforcement within minutes, providing user metadata to the authorities. This new encryption feature added an additional layer of protection to chat backups stored either on Apple iCloud or Google Drive. The new privacy policy would not apply within the EU, as it is illegal under the GDPR. On December 16, 2020, a claim that WhatsApp gave Google access to private messages was included in the vegas casino app anti-trust case against the latter.

Requires update but won’t download

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. 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. When a user sends a message, it is stored on a WhatsApp server, which tries to forward it to the addressee, and repeatedly requests acknowledgement of receipt. WhatsApp’s voice codec is Opus, which uses the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) and linear predictive coding (LPC) audio compression algorithms. Some devices using dual SIMs may not be compatible with WhatsApp, though there are unofficial workarounds to install the app. Similarly to WhatsApp for web, Windows, Mac, and smartwatches, the iPad is a type of linked device that connects and syncs to WhatsApp running on a smartphone.

Jeff Bezos phone hack

Clothing au ballon was produced with exaggerated puffed sleeves, rounded skirts, or with printed images of balloons. Blanchard intended to „row“ northeast to La Villette but the balloon was pushed by the wind across the Seine to Billancourt and back again, landing in the rue de Sèvres. Married to Sophie Blanchard in 1804, Blanchard suffered a fatal heart attack in his balloon in 1808, with his widow continuing balloon demonstrations until her accidental death.

The early balloon flights triggered a phase of the public „balloonomania“, with all manner of objects decorated with images of balloons or styled au ballon, from ceramics to fans and hats. The first manned hydrogen balloon flight took place on 1 December 1783, when Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert launched the first gas balloon from the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. The first successful manned balloon flight took place on 21 November 1783, when Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes took off at the Palace of Versailles in a free-flying hot air balloon constructed by the Montgolfier brothers. Blanchard made his first successful balloon flight in Paris on 2 March 1784, in a hydrogen gas balloon launched from the Champ de Mars.

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. 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. Since the complete roll out of this feature, users cannot check old messages before this period on the Web version anymore.

In October 2019, WhatsApp officially launched a new fingerprint app-locking feature for Android users. In November 2024, the ability to transcribe voice messages was added, allowing users to read out what was said in a voice message, rather than listening to the audio. By June 2016, the company’s blog reported more than 100 million voice calls per day were being placed on WhatsApp. In May 2023, WhatsApp allowed users to edit messages, aligning itself with competitors such as Telegram and Signal which already offered this feature.

In December 2024, WhatsApp introduced several new video calling features, including the ability to select specific participants from a group to make a call, rather than calling all group members. Unlike their 32-person group calls, starting a voice chat does not call all group members directly; they instead receive a notification to join the voice chat. In November 2023, WhatsApp added a „voice chat“ feature for groups with more than 32 members. Later in September 2018, WhatsApp introduced group audio and video call features. Voice calls between two accounts were added to the app in March and April 2015.

At that point WhatsApp was adding about 25 million new users every month, or 833,000 active users per day. On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages. In October 2020, Facebook announced the introduction of pricing tiers for services offered via the WhatsApp Business API, charged on a per-conversation basis.