Author Archives: Christine

Great news for iOS users. WhatsApp, the populas instant messaging app, has just released an updated version of the app which finally fixes a bug that consumes all of an iPhone’s unused storage space. And that’s not all.

Updated version 2.12.15 of WhatsApp for iPhone brings also a new, useful, feature that allows users to send and receive PDF files. And iOS users will also be delighted to find other much awaited features. In fact now iPhone users will also be able to share videos and photos with their contacts and, that’s really awesome, to zoom in on videos while they’re playing.

So, let’s see what changes with this new version 2.12.15 of WhatsApp for iPhone. Unfortunately, until now users with 8GB or 16GB iPhone devices were having serious problems due to a storage bug. Luckily this issue has been solved by WhatsApp developers, and now iOS users will immediately notice that they have much more storage space on their devices. And, as we said above, that’s not all and other nice surprises are now available for iOS users.

Thanks to this new 2.12.15 version, users will be able to send and receive PDF files,  photos and videos. Using this feature users are now allowed to share with their contacts not only what they have saved locally, but also what they have stored on Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive or Dropbox. How can you use this feature? In an easy way: by opening the “Photo/Video Library” and tapping “Choose from another app…”

What else? With this new version of WhatsApp for iPhone, users will be able to change colours for chat background and also to zoom in videos while they are playing. How can you install this latest updated version of WhatsApp for iPhone? You can find this latest 2.12.15 version already available on the Apple App Store.

It seems that WhatsApp is keeping its promises. After the news released a few days ago, when  users were informed that the Facebook-owned company was dropping support to certain operating systems (such as Windows Phone 7.1, Nokia S60 and Blackberry 10) to better focus on other mobile platforms  that the majority of people use, new updates to the app are gradually coming. Obviously the decision has created quite a discontent between WhatsApp users of these older platforms, who have time until the end of the year to switch to other platforms like, for example, Android.

And so today we are going to see the last updated version of WhatsApp for Windows Phone. This latest version 2.12.300, as we said above, further improves some features introduced with the previous update. With version 2.12.278 the grouping for consecutive messages from the same contact had been changed, with the removal of some spaces between them. Now, with this new version 2.12.300 of WhatsApp for Windows Phone, this option has been further enhanced, with the chat bubbles that automatically adapt to the length of the text you are typing.

And the good news is that the update is already available in the stable version. Some changes have been brought also to notifications. After this latest update notifications of messages arrived on your device while the app is closed will be cleared from the Action Centre as soon as you open the app again. You will notice also some changes in the Info page, thanks to some minor restyling.

The toast and Action Centre is now considerably wider, allowing WhatsApp users to immediately read a whole message if it is less than 4 lines. In addition, also the Live Tile has been improved and now, besides showing the missed messages, offers a brief preview. So, what do you think? Are you convinced? If you are interested, you can download this latest version of WhatsApp for Windows Phone from the Windows Store using this link

New interesting updates are available for those of you who use WhatsApp with Android devices. In the last few hours a new beta version has been released and it brings the document sharing support. This new beta version 2.12.493 adds a new documents icon to the paperclip attachments list, and, for the moment, you can add only PDF documents. But it shouldn’t take long before WhatsAppers will be able to attach other documents types.

It is important to know that to use this option both the sender and the recipient must use the same version of WhatsApp. The update includes also the removal of an icon. Beta version 2.12.493 in fact hasn’t got anymore the Video option but just the Photo one. By tapping on it you can choose whether to take a photo or shoot a video. Still easy, isn’t it? So, how can you test this new document sharing option?

First of all you need to have a friend who has upgraded his/her device with the latest 2.12. 493 beta version of WhatsApp for Android. Once you are sure that you can share your document with your contact, you can tap the paperclip and then Document. From here you can select from the list of PDFs on your phone which one you want to share with your contact. You’ll be able to see a preview of the document in the chat and the file will then be stored in a completely new Documents tab, which you’ll find in the Media section in the chat’s overflow menu.

And that’s not all. Beta version 2.12.493 of WhatsApp for Android brings also a new Documents folder, which you can find in WhastsApp Media Folder. From this new folder you’ll be able to check the Documents box located in the Media Auto-Download settings. If this is a great news for WhatsApp users, there are other news not so pleasant.

Recent news report that Diego Dzodan, Facebook Executive, has been arrested in Brazil because WhatsApp didn’t share data with police, and exactly for “ignoring a judicial order” for an investigation. What happened? In Brazil Dzoran is accused of ignoring a judicial order in a secret investigation involving organized crime and drug trafficking.

Immediate reactions are coming from both Facebook and WhatsApp. A Facebook spokesperson told Gizmodo that “We’re disappointed with the extreme and disproportionate measure of having a Facebook executive escorted to a police station in connection with a case involving WhatsApp, which operates separately from Facebook. Facebook has always been and will be available to address any questions Brazilian authorities may have”, while a WhatsApp spokesperson added that “WhatsApp cannot provide information we do not have. We cooperated to the full extent of our ability in this case and while we respect the important job of law enforcement, we strongly disagree with its decision.”

During the past few months, WhatsApp encryption has been long debated by UK Government,  creating controversial reactions in the public opinion. And now the UK Government has introduced a law that requires WhatsApp and iMessage to break their own security, the Independent reports. What’s happening?

A new draft of the Investigatory Powers Bill (or Snooper’s Charter) has been re-written and, despite lot of criticism, it includes a clause that allows  the removal of end-to-end encryption. This kind  of encryption is the technology used by services such as WhatsApp, Facetime and iMessage and that guarantees their users to communicate securely.

The Government assures that this specific clause will be used only where it is ‘practicable‘, adding that the law will only oblige technology companies to weaken a security system that they themselves decided to apply. But that’s not all. In fact the bill also asks that internet companies keep track of everything that their users have looked at for an entire year so to allow the Government to access that information.

Obviously the technology companies have complained and the bill was criticised even by charities like Privacy International, that argues that no real changes had been made to guarantee people’s security. That’s what Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International, said: “It would be shameful to even consider this change cosmetic. The Bill published today continues to adhere to the structure and the underlying rationale that underpinned the draft IP Bill, despite the criticism and lengthy list of recommendations from three Parliamentary Committees.”

“The continued inclusion of powers for bulk interception and bulk equipment interference – hacking by any other name – leaves the right to privacy dangerously undermined and the security of our infrastructure at risk. Despite this, the Home Office stands by its claim that the Bill represents “world-leading” legislation. It is truly world-leading, for all the wrong reasons.”

Once again, it seems that there is a thin line dividing what’s right and what’s wrong for our safety. Technology companies seem more inclined to guarantee their users’ privacy (a clear example is what’s happening in America between Apple and FBI), while governments claim the right to access users’ data for public safety reasons.

Is it an end of an era? It seems so. WhatsApp has decided to drop support to certain operating systems including Windows Phone 7.1 and Blackberry 10 and to focus on other mobile platforms the majority of people use. The decision is final, and the Facebook-owned instant messaging app will stop working on the following operating systems by the end of December 2016:

• Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
• Blackberry OS 7 and earlier
• Blackberry 10
• Nokia S40
• Nokia Symbian S60
• Windows Phone 7.1

But if you have one of the latest Blackberry smartphone you don’t have to worry because WhatsApp will still work on it because it runs with Android. But why this unexpected decision and why now? If you have a look to the list above, you’ll notice that these are operating systems no longer installed on new devices (with the exception of Blackberry 10). And that’s why WhatsApp took this important decision.

The company has also given a detailed explanation to its many users trhrough a blog post on its website saying that: “WhatsApp turned seven years old. It has been an amazing journey and in the coming months we’re putting an even greater emphasis on security features and more ways to stay in touch with the people that you care about. But anniversary dates are also an opportunity to look back. When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 percent of sales today – were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time. As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus our efforts on the mobile platforms the vast majority of people use.”

Furthermore, the company suggests its users (one billion all over the world) to upgrade to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp.

It seems that WhatsApp, with its 1 billion monthly active users, is a serious threat to carriers incomes. Why? Simple. Let’s see what’s happening. Since WhatsApp is a free application that works through the internet, most of WhatsAppers use the app via a wireless network. In that way they don’t consume their mobile data included in the monthly plan.

Obviously, considering the costant growth of WhatsApp, telephone companies are concerned and certainly furious, and are convinced that the multi-platform app is a damage to carriers life. The problem is bigger than you might think, and a few months ago it even led a Brazilian judge to temporarily suspend the Facebook-owned app after receiving complaints from telecommunications lobbying group.

That’s what José María Álvarez-Pallete, Telefónica Chief Operating Officer, declared last summer during a telecommunications industry event: “WhatsApp is competing with us, not only with messaging but with voice, too”. Telefónica, which is renowned in Latin America, is not alone in its battle and, along with other carriers, is fighting aganist the predominance of WhatsApp in their countries. In fact it is undeniable that these companies are significantly loosing revenue coming from phone calls and text messages.

And you can find a similar scenario in South Africa too, where there is an actual war against instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Viber, Skype and other messaging apps. The carriers that have started this fierce battle are Vodacom Group and MTN Group. The South African companies are convinced that these messaging apps are costing the country a lot of money, and they were so persuasive to induce the telecom regulator to begin an investigation.

Obviously these above are just a few examples of what’s happening around the world, even though a couple of years ago Mark Zuckerberg declared that Facebook was not going to be a competitor but a partner. The statement was followed by contradictory actions particularly in India, were he received many critics by the telecommunications industry.

Now that WhatsApp has reached the incredible goal of one billion monthly active users spread all over the world, we can definitely affirm that the app is now much more than a social media. Just think about it. This multi-platform instant messaging app is now used in quite every field: to communicate with friends and family, or for job purposes.

Nowadays also journalists use the app to share, send and obtain information. And that’s not all. Even doctors use WhatsApp to communicate with their patients. Statistics report that particularly Brazilians doctors use the app: 87% of them use WhatsApp to send messages to their patients. In Italy the percentage is 62%, while in the UK just 2% of doctors use WhatsApp to get in touch with their patients.

But despite the popularity of the app between doctors and patients, the Dutch privacy watchdog believes that WhatsApp is not secure enough for sharing patients info. According to Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, the habit to exchange confidential patients information needs to be changed because ‘WhatsApp does not meet the standards for exchanging information about patients’ . But there is a Dutch start-up that seems to have already found a solution to this issue.MDLInking is developing a new app dedicated to doctors which promises to be safe. The company will soon have the product tested by a group of hackers before the launch expected in May.

But, as we said above, WhatsApp is particularly popular in Brazil, where most of the doctors use the app to communicate with their patients. Well, which role has played WhatsApp during the outbreak of Zika virus? An important one. In a country where the use of mobile phones is expensive, WhatsApp helped a lot in the investigation of the outbreaks of Zika and microcephaly.

In fact, since last March specialists have been sharing information about simptoms all over Brazil thanks to WhatsApp. To give you an idea of the role of WhatsApp in the country, maybe it is enough to say that half of all Brazilians regularly use the Facebook-owned app to send messages.  Doctors’ work to identify Zika was certainly helped by a WhatsApp group named “CHIKV: The Mission”, where they chatted regularly and shared information.

But unfortunately, with this kind of crises, WhatsApp wasn’t always helpful, on the contrary. Sometimes its use has created panic and potential misinformation. But nevertheless it is still used, and it seems that Brazil needs it more than ever. WhatsApp is being used also to connect patients who might otherwise be isolated. Many mothers with microcephaly babies across the country are creating WhatsApp groups to exchange information about the virus and also to help each other. Unfortunately not all the mothers can afford to be part of a group chat. In Brazil smartphones are expensive, and many families are too poor to buy one.

So, today we’ve seen two different scenarios and certainly around the world there are other countries who are facing and debating similar problems. But the question is still open: do we have to follow privacy watchdogs instructions and avoid to use WhatsApp for medical reasons until our privacy is guaranteed?