WhatsApp’s beta Apple Silicon Mac app is now available for download to the public through its website. The company has been beta testing its native Mac app through TestFlight for the last few months.
The new app provides a notably better user experience than the existing app of the messaging service. And since it is a native app, it performs much better as well.
WhatsApp is finally catching up to FaceTime and adding support for video calls with up to 32 participants. You can also mute or message an individual on a group call.
Up until now, you could use WhatsApp for group voice calls with 32 people. Video calls were limited to 8 people.
And support for Picture-in-Picture is in testing.
WhatsApp is finally adding the ability to transfer your chat history from Android to iPhone.
If your WhatsApp conversations were holding you back from switching to an iPhone, that should no longer be a cause for concern.
Looks like secure chat client WhatsApp just got a little livelier. Its long-promised emoji-based Reactions and newly developed Communities features for organizations rolled out on Thursday.
Users will have six emojis to play with to start. And in addition to new Communities, WhatsApp’s Groups functionality gets a revamp, too.
WhatsApp on Thursday revealed significant improvements to voice messaging across Android and iOS. The update adds the ability to change the speed of audio playback, pause and resume recording, and more.
It also allows voice message playback to continue when users back out of a conversation to catch up with another. Users can look forward to seeing the changes “in the coming weeks,” WhatsApp said.
WhatsApp could soon let mobile users send significantly larger files by message. The platform’s current file size limit is a meager 100MB, but some beta testers have seen that limit increase to a generous 2GB.
Only a limited number of users can take advantage of the change for now. But the hope is that WhatsApp will eventually make the new limit available to all.
WhatsApp for iPhone just got a big improvement to voice messaging that means you no longer have to put other replies on hold. The app now continues to play a voice message you’ve already started even if you jump into another chat.
It’s part of a bunch of improvements WhatsApp plans for audio notes, which also include the ability to replay a message you’ve recorded before sending it.
This WhatsApp transfer post is presented by Wondershare.
When you get a new device and transfer your WhatsApp account to it — let’s say you’re switching from an Android device to a new iPhone 13 — you might be surprised there’s no automatic way to do it when two different operating systems are involved.
Thankfully, MobileTrans makes it easy to do WhatsApp transfer, backup and restore operations. And it works even when you’re moving your WhatsApp chats from one operating system to another.
WhatsApp is readying message reactions on iOS and Android that will roll out in a future app update. Screenshots of the feature have appeared ahead of its release, showing the ability to react to messages with select emoji.
It’s much like the message reactions feature already available to iPhone users inside iMessage. WhatsApp seems to be following Apple’s lead by only making certain emoji available, rather than allowing all of them, like Instagram.
WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart has revealed that the company “would love” to deliver a native iPad app after acknowledging that users have been waiting for it for a long time.
WhatsApp is one of the only major messaging platforms that doesn’t offer a tablet app for iPad or Android. But Cathcart says “the underlying technology is there” now that WhatsApp offers proper multi-device support.
The latest WhatsApp update on iPhone brings a number of neat improvements for those who have updated to iOS 15. The app is now fully compatible with Focus mode, while contact photos now appear in notifications.
WhatsApp has also made it possible to pause and resume while recording voice messages. The version 22.2.75 is now available to all, though it could be a few weeks before the improvements are rolled out to everyone.
WhatsApp is preparing to greatly increase the security of its desktop and web apps by adding two-step verification during the sign-in process.
Users will be prompted to create a six-digit PIN as an additional layer of protection for their account. They will then enter this when registering their phone number with WhatsApp again — like when signing in on other devices.
The U.K. will spend taxpayer money on a dramatic “publicity attack” against end-to-end encryption, according to a new report. The country apparently hopes to sway public opinion before taking further steps to crack down on the security feature.
A major focus of the campaign will be child safety. M&C Saatchi, the agency hired to run the marketing blitz, reportedly will use child actors to carry out emotive stunts that suggest encryption is being used by predators to conceal their activities.
A future WhatsApp update will bring contact photos to your notifications on iPhone. The feature, which requires iOS 15 or later, is already being tested among beta users in version 2.22.1.1 of the app.
This is just one of many improvements WhatsApp has started working on for its iPhone app. Others include revamped contact pages, and a Community feature that gives admins more control over their groups.
WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new app that will work on both iPad and Mac. It’s thought to take advantage of Apple’s Catalyst platform, which makes it easier for developers to build universal applications.
The popular messaging service is already available on macOS, but this would be the first native WhatsApp client for iPad. WhatsApp has already started rolling out improved multi-device support that is less reliant on a smartphone.
WhatsApp’s handy multi-device feature is now rolling out to all users on Android and iPhone, making it easier to access your messages on other devices. The upgrade finally makes WhatsApp a little less reliant on your smartphone.
Sadly, multi-device support still does not allow you to use WhatsApp on two different smartphones — like you can with rival messaging services.
WhatsApp’s encrypted backups features is now rolling out on iPhone. Users can create a password to prevent unauthorized access to their chat data, while still uploading it to iCloud or Google Drive for their convenience.
The feature ensures that your WhatsApp chats are protected, even if the backup file itself somehow makes it into the wrong hands.
“A faulty configuration change.” That’s all it takes to bring three of the world’s biggest social platforms to their knees for more than six hours, according to an apology issued by Facebook after Monday’s disastrous outage.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp became unavailable worldwide between approximately 9:15 a.m. PDT and 3:30 p.m. PDT on October 4. Facebook said it has no reason to believe user data was compromised during this time.
Switching from Android to iPhone could soon be a little bit easier. WhatsApp is working on a new tool that will allow users to transfer all their chat data from Google’s platform to iOS, according to a new beta version of the app.
WhatsApp promises to protect every one of its 2 billion users with end-to-end encryption that ensures their messages cannot be seen by anyone outside of the original conversation. But does it live up to that promise?
A new report alleges that the Facebook-owned messaging platform uses artificial intelligence and more than 1,000 contract workers to examine “millions of pieces of users’ content” using “special Facebook software.”
That’s despite Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg telling the U.S. Senate in 2018 that “we don’t see any of the content in WhatsApp.”
WhatsApp could soon give users the ability to hide their “last seen” status from individual contacts. Evidence of the change has already popped up in WhatsApp beta releases ahead of its rollout on Android and iOS.
WhatsApp recently patched a serious security vulnerability that could expose sensitive user data. Security researchers discovered the hole, which could be exploited by opening an attachment that contained a malicious image file.
More recent versions of WhatsApp now check the integrity of image that has been edited with filters to keep users safe.
WhatsApp now allows anyone to beta test its desktop app for Mac and Windows. You can enroll in its new public beta program today to get your hands on the newest updates early — and you won’t want to miss it.
By gaining access to the beta, you’ll be one of the first to try out WhatsApp’s incoming multi-device overhaul when it finally starts rolling out.
You can now send disappearing images and videos on WhatsApp that can be viewed only once. The new feature, aptly named “View Once,” takes cues from similar disappearing message options from the likes of Snapchat.
The ability to send or receive a WhatsApp photo or video message that automatically disappears after one viewing is rolling out to iOS beta users of the messaging app, just as it did in late June to Android beta users.