Category Archives: NEWS

Recently you have been so relieved knowing that you have the chance to delete that embarrassing message sent by mistake with WhatsApp. And now you discover that instead there is a little trick to read it!

Yes, my dear WhatsAppers, according to Spanish website Android Jefe, there is a way to read a ‘deleted’ message. But let’s start from the beginning. The Facebook-owned instant messaging app has recently rolled out a new feature called Delete for Everyone, available on Android, iPhone and Windows Phone. This option allows WhatsApp users to delete messages sent by mistake to an individual or a group. Users have exactly seven minutes to delete the message and, most important, in order to use this feature both the recipient and the sender need to have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on their devices.Once you have deleted the message, in your account you will find this words “You deleted this message”.

That said, now according to a new report these supposedly deleted messages can be accessed. Or at least that’s what Android Jefe claims. According to the Spanish website the messages are stored in the notification register of the Android system. What does it mean? It means that you just have to enter that record to check out the messages that the user has deleted. How is it possible?

In order to access the deleted messages, first of all you need to download a third party app from the Google Play Store called Notification History. Once you have installed Notification History just open it. From the app you will see the entire activity log of your phone for the past 3 hours. And, surprise surprise, the deleted message will also appear in the list. To read it, just tap on the user icon. But if for any reason you restart your device, the notification log will disappear.

This has been an extremely difficult week for the Facebook-owned instant messaging app. The Chinese government has in fact, once again, temporarily blocked the app.

As reported at the beginning of the week by The New York Times, the service bad been “broadly disrupted in China”, while TechCrunch claims that many users couldn’t use WhatsApp from Sunday night, even if in some areas it was still possible to send and receive WhatsApp messages.

Strangely, WhatsApp has not yet released any comments on the blockage, and it seems that nothing will be said about this odd situation. The relationship between the app and the Chinese government has always been difficult, and it’s not the first time that the app has been banned in the country.

But what is the reason for this last blockage? Many think that it is just another step toward censorship, taken before a major party meeting that will be held next month. During this meeting the current President Xi Jinping will be appointed again for a second term of five year.

And the encryption service that WhatsApp offers to its users is not welcomed by the current government for obvious reasons. So, let’s see if the ban is just temporary, of if it WhatsApp will be banned in a more permanent way in China.

And Facebook? Even Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t released any comments on the matter. We know that Facebook, along with other social media, is banned in China. But the app was smart enough to build another Chinese version of Moments (its private photo-sharing app), and called it Colorful Balloons. Colorful Balloons is distributed in China by a company named Youge Internet Technology.

China represents a huge market, offering great possibility to grow, so it’ unclear with this situation what step Facebook will take.

Great news for those of you who use WhatsApp through Android devices. Thanks to the latest update, users will find it much easier to free up space on their smartphones, and without wasting much time. How is it possible?

According to Android Police, the app has added (currently just as a beta) a new storage management section, which allows users to mass-delete specific kind of chats or messages, and in the meantime allows saving others. How can you use this new feature?

You simply need to go to Settings > Data and Storage Usage > Storage usage. This new menu, after a while, will show you a list of your chats and how much space they take. If you need it, by tapping on any chat you will see a detailed tally of every kind of message that you have sent or received and how much space each message is taking: images, text messages, documents and so on.

From here, at the bottom of the screen, you can use the new Manage Messages button, that gives you the option to select and delete all or any message types. For example you can choose to delete all the GIFs and keep all the messages, or viceversa, and so on. That’s great, isn’t it? Especially if you use WhatsApp a lot for your job, you finally have the possibility to create more space deleting those kind of chats or attachments that you are sure you don’t need anymore.

To be honest this feature is not completely new, since it has been available for iOS users for some time. As we said, this latest 2.17.340 update of WhatsApp for Android devices is available only as a beta, so unless you are a Beta Tester, you cannot install it on your smartphone. But you can always join the program simply going on the Official Play Store. Or, alternatively, you can download it manually from safe sites such APK Mirror.

Today we have some news that will really take WhatsApp users by surprise. Brian Acton, WhatsApp co-founder, is leaving the company to embrace a new adventure in a non-profit sector. Acton, along with Jan Koum, founded WhatsApp eight years ago and since then many things happened.

Just three years ago the company was acquired by Facebook for $19 billion, and now WhatsApp counts more than a billion daily users all over the world. We don’t have many details about this farewell, just this message posted on Facebook by Acton himself:

“After 8 years at WhatsApp, I have decided to move on and start a new chapter in my life. I am very fortunate at my age to have the flexibility to take new risks and focus on what I’m passionate about. I’ve decided to start a non-profit focused at the intersection of nonprofit, technology and communications. It’s something I’ve thought about for a while, and now it’s time to just focus and execute. I’ll have more to share in the coming months. This decision is, of course, a tough one. I’m proud of what our team has accomplished in only a few years, and it’s humbling to see that so many people rely on WhatsApp every day. ”  

So, what will happen now? A Facebook’s spokesperson told Kurt Wagner of Recode (a technology news website) that Acton’s role will not be filled by a single employee. Probably Acton is not as popular as Jan Koum (the other CEO of WhatsApp), but still his work for the amazing growth of WhatsApp has been fundamental.

Before going public, Acton announced the decision to leave the instant messaging app during a meeting held at Facebook’s headquarters on Tuesday. As we said, despite the public announcement, there aren’t many details on this decision, and especially on what will happen now. We’ve seen many changes during the last few months and now it appears that WhatsApp, which has reached 1.3 billion users, is ready to make some money (but not from advertisements).

We know that the company has advertised for some key business positions. Furthermore, according to other recent communication , WhatsApp is developing a new way to raise money through verified business accounts.

Let’s see how much this change at the head of the company will affect the policy that WhatsApp has followed so far.

Great news for all Windows Phones users: they will be finally able to download a new, major update of WhatsApp. And that’s not all. In fact this latest new version, number 2.17.258, is already a stable one. Which means that this new version is already available for all Windows Phones and Windows 10 Mobile users, not just for Beta testers.

This new 2.17.258 update for Windows Phones and Windows 10 Mobile adds many of the features that have already been introduced in previous Beta versions of the app. This is important, because it means that they have already been tested and improved.

So, what changes? Along with the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, this is the full changelog of this latest 2.17.258 update:

• New GIF search feature.
• Multiple selection in the chat list by tapping on the far left of the chat.
• Some improvements for sending any type of files.
• Removed some backgrounds from the WhatsApp’s default background list.

However, Windows Phones and Windows 10 Mobile users need to wait a little bit more before being able to use the Emoticons search features. Since this new option has just been released, Beta users are still testing it. But don’t worry, it should be added soon to a stable version.

According to rumours, WhatsApp is testing verified business accounts. It is not completely a surprise, since Jan Koum (one of the founders of the app) had already anticipated such a possibility in 2016. And now it appears that the instant messaging platform (the most popular around the world, with over 1.3 billion active users) is seriously working to make this idea a reality.

If you open the FAQ section of the company’s website, you can find this note: ‘WhatsApp is exploring ways for you to communicate with the businesses that matter to you. Some business accounts have been verified by WhatsApp. If you see a green badge  next to a contact’s name, it means that WhatsApp has confirmed that the phone number of this contact belongs to a business account. WhatsApp will also let you know when you start talking to a business via yellow messages inside a chat. There is no way to delete these messages from the chat. If you already have a business’s phone number saved in your address book, the name you will see is the name you have saved in your address book. If you don’t have a business’s phone number saved in your address book, the name you will see is the name the business has chosen for themselves. If you’d like to stop a business from contacting you, you can block them. Note: WhatsApp business verification is currently limited to a small number of businesses participating in a pilot program.’

But why the company is so interested in this new system? Because, as Koum explained back in 2016, it will help raise money without adding advertising into the app. It seems also that for the moment this new version of the app will be available just for the Android platform, and the news seems to be confirmed by a job vacancy spotted by Business Insider where WhatsApp was looking for a ‘technical specialist, SMB – product operations’. The announcement also added: ‘Become an expert in the WhatsApp Business app for Android and a source of information to the Market team members.’

WhasApp users will soon be able to use a new, great feature. This latest version of WhatsApp, available for both iOS and Android platforms, allows users to write status updates with a colorful background, and also enables users to add a link and choose a font for statuses. Furthermore, users have now the possibility to view status updates on WhatsApp for the web.

However, avid WhatsApp users will notice immediately that this new feature is very similar to a feature already existing on Facebook. Talking about this new improvement of WhatsApp, now the most successful instant messaging app in the world, a spokesperson explained: ‘The new feature makes it easy to share creative text-based Status updates. Now you never have to worry about getting the word out to all your family and friends. Whether you’re looking for vacation recommendations or notifying a group about the address for a party, the text-based status feature allows you to update your contacts in a fun and personal way. To customize text statuses, users can choose a specific font and background color, or include links‘.

And that’s not all. WhatsApp has further improved its web support and now its many users will be able to view Status updates also on their computers. Furthermore, there are other important changes that include the possibility to control who can see your Status update. That’s what WhatsApp said: ‘You can select from the following three options: “My contacts,” “contacts except…” and “only share with…”.’

WhatsApp has added also another important option: the ability to see who has viewed your Status update. How? Users have simply to tap on the eye icon at the bottom of any Status update and they will be able to view the list of contacts who have seen the Status.

WhatsApp also announced that this latest update will allow users to reply to Status updates. That’s what the announcement said: ‘When you view someone’s Status update, there is a reply button, so you can comment on any photo, video, or GIF. Once you tap reply, your message will be sent in a WhatsApp chat with a thumbnail of the Status update.‘