WhatsApp Download

Another scam is seriously endangering the safety of WhatsApp users. This time it looks like an official message and it contains a link to an alleged customer portal where users are asked to give their bank details.

That’s the text of the message: “Our records indicate that your WhatsApp trial service is exceeding the one-year period.” The message then adds: “At the completion of your trial period your WhatsApp will no longer be able to send or receive message [sic]. To continue using WhatsApp without interruption [sic], we need you to subscribe for any of our subscription periods.”.

So, WhatsAppers are warned, this is just a scam organized by cyber criminals to obtain their bank details, and Action Fraud (the UK national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre) asks user to stay vigilant. That’s the explanation the organization has given to WhatsApp users with a blog post: “Long term users of WhatsApp will remember paying a 0.99p annual fee to use the messaging service. In 2016, this was scrapped by Facebook who took over running of the company after buying it for £11.4bn. That means since 2016, the service has been free for every user.“.

The text of the scam reads: “Your subscription has expired. To verify your account and purchase a lifetime subscription for just 0.99 GBP simply tap on this link.”, but it’s clearly a fake since WhatsApp is still a free app so uses are warned not to click on the link given in the hoax message.

It is always valid what WhatsApp has already said in the past, providing its users suggestions on how to spot these kind of scams. So, always become suspicious if you receive a message where:

• The sender claims to be affiliated with WhatsApp.
• The message content includes instructions to forward the message.
• The message claims you can avoid punishment, like account suspension, if you forward the message.
• The message content includes a reward or gift from WhatsApp or another person.

Furthermore, WhatsApp suggests to block the sender and disregard and delete the message.

Today we have great news for those of you who use our favourite instant messaging app with Android devices. Thanks to the latest 2.17.265 update, WhatsApp users with Android 8.0 devices will be able to enjoy a new, useful functionality.

According to Android Police, a new “Picture-in-Picture” mode is already available on Android O Developer Preview. So, how does it work? The PiP option is designed to allow users to continue texting (or doing other things, in other words it is the right feature for multitasking) while having a video conversation.

The video in fact will be compressed into a floating window that users can move around. Users can also enlarge it by simply tapping on it, and then the video gets back to its normal size. Furthermore, by swiping it down, the call will be put in the background and the video gets paused. That’s great, isn’t it?

Obviously, being a beta, if you want to install this latest 2.17.265 beta version of WhatsApp on your Android device you have to join the beta tester program on the Play Store. An alternative way to download this latest update of WhatsApp is to install the APK manually downloading it from some safe sites such as AKP Mirror.

As we said above, this improvement is available only for Android O users, and we are currently not able to tell you if and when it will be added to the other platforms. For example, Android Nougat users of WhatsApp know that currently, when having a video call, the video gets paused and the audio continues if they are having a text conversation or are doing other things on their smartphone.

But obviously WhatsApp is not the only app that is introducing this new Picture-in-Picture option. Many other competitors are developing this functionality, that you can already find on Chrome, Play Movies, Google’s Duo and VLC Beta.

The latest WhatsApp update is really going to help the app users to save time while they type their messages. Yes, with this latest 2.17.148 beta version of the app users will be able to use in an easier way an already existing feature, that has been hugely improved.

Let’s see what changes. Beta version 2.17.148 adds a special dropdown menu. Simply tapping the overflow button, users will be able to change their font automatically. All thanks to this floating toolbar. How does it work? It’s very easy. You just have to select the text you need to change and the replacement will be automatically applied.

This process is clearly much simpler then the current one. At the moment, if you want to make your text appear in bold, you have to type an asterisk before and after the world you want in bold. For italics, you have to use the underscore character before and after the word. And if you need to strikethrough a word, you need to type the tilde character before and after the word.

However, this new useful feature feature is currently available only for Android users, those who are enrolled to the beta testing program. But, according to some rumours, the feature will soon be added to iPhones.

Needless to say, the addition of this new option makes it much easier to format your text, saving you precious time. Unfortunately, it is not clear when this latest feature will be released with a stable version of the app.

If the addition of this feature is important, we think that WhatsApp users will also be very happy to use another feature which is still in beta. We are talking about the emoji search option, which allows WhatsAppers to find immediately the emoji they need through a word or a character search.

Once again, we have great news about WhatsApp, since some new, useful options have been added to both Android and iPhone platforms. Let’s see what changes.

WhatsApp for Android – New Beta version 2.17.246 
This latest update for Android devices brings a new feature that allows users to search for emojis in an easier and faster way. Probably many of you already know that this option is already available in third party keyboard apps such as Google Gboard, and now is finally available for Android users of the Facebook-owned app.

How does the emoji search work? It’s a quite uncomplicated feature. The first step is tapping on the emoji icon, that will show you the emoji list. At the bottom of this list you will find the search icon. Clicking on it you will be able to type the required emoji and the app will show you some suggestions in a new bar based on the keyword you have typed. From here users can select which one they want to use. Nice, isn’t it? This new feature is currently available as a new Beta, but it should be added to a stable version soon.

WhatsApp for iPhone: the new 2.17.31 update adds the video streaming feature 
This new option is not completely new to WhatsApp users, since it was spotted in Android beta, but at the end developers have decided to add it first to iPhones. This new feature enables WhatsApp users to watch shared videos while they’re being downloaded. First of all, iOS users will find at the bottom of the video dialogue box the size of the video. Once you touch the play button, the video immediately starts streaming, obviously depending upon your Internet connection speed.

Last but not least, WaBetaInfo reports that the WhatsApp FAQ page had been momentarily updated with information about the recall feature. The information disappeared immediately. Anyway, it could be a hint that this long-awaited feature will be added to stable versions soon.

WhatsApp is not just a free instant messaging platform where users are allowed to chat and share pictures and videos. Actually, the Facebook-owned instant messaging app is a rising star also between news media. That’s what a new Digital News Report shows.

The survey was carried out by the Reuters Institute For The Study of Journalism and was sponsored by the BBC and Google. The research was conducted in 34 countries in Europe, then also in America, Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and 71,805 people decided to participate, answering the questions of YouGov in a period between January and February. These are the results, and many could be quite surprised by them.

First of all Facebook, which stays at the top as the most popular social media and messaging service everywhere, but not in Japan and South Korea, where the throne goes to YouTube and Kakao Talk. From the survey it emerges that people use more and more instant messaging apps, and WhatsApp in particular, to share news stories. WhatsApp is currently the second most popular social service for news in nine of the 36 locations examined and is the third most popular platform in other five countries.

What are the reasons for this success? The authors of the research try to give several explanations. First of all the end-to-end encryption. It seems that users feel safer. Nick Newman, one of the authors of the survey, said that “Some of the biggest growth we’ve seen is in places like Turkey, where it’s positively dangerous for people to express anti-government preferences on open networks like Facebook,” adding that “As a result people are using closed groups where they are more confident of expressing their views.”.

Furthermore, in countries such Latin America mobile networks offer unlimited data use, and so users are encouraged to use the app. Also several Chilean and Spanish media outlets are using similar policies, and radio stations asks listeners to let them have short voice recordings using WhatsApp. Mr Newman also stated that “And part of WhatsApp’s appeal is that users don’t get interrupted by brands, making it a very pure form of messaging. That’s something [its developers] will really try to hold to.”

Obviously the report has a section dedicated to the so-called “fake news”. The research shows once more the distrust of the mainstream media, especially in some countries where the industry is considered too close to the government. The analysis also demonstrated that internet is now commonly used to gather information and news, and Facebook and Google are currently the main providers, even if Yahoo News is still the most popular online news brand when when it comes to the number of people using the service at least once a week.

Millions of WhatsApp users can take a big sigh of relief since the popular Facebook-owned instant messaging app has changed idea again about blocking its service on older mobile platforms such as Windows Phone 8.0 or Android versions 2.3.7.

WhatsApp has in fact  just announced the decision to further  extend its support for users running the app on ageing mobile platforms. With an updated blog post, the app explains what is going to happen. Avid WhatsApp users know that this is the second time that the app takes this the decision, which we assume is very suffered.

Previously the blocking was programmed for the end of 2016, and was then prolonged to the end of June 2017. Now this latest (and we think final) decision. So, if you use for example a BlackBerry 10, or a Nokia S40, you might be interested to know the new “blocking” plan.

• Nokia Symbian S60: WhatsApp will stop working after June 30, 2017
• BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10: WhatsApp will stop working after December 31, 2017
• Windows Phone 8.0 and older: WhatsApp will stop working after December 31, 2017
• Nokia S40: WhatsApp will stop working after December 31, 2018
• Android versions 2.3.7 and older: WhatsApp will stop working after February 1, 2020

However, in its post WhatsApp makes it clear that these platforms will no longer be developed, so some features may stop functioning at any time.