Category Archives: NEWS

After recent controversial news, WhatsAppers may have finally something to be happy about again. It seems in fact that both iOS and Android users will soon be able to use some huge new features such as Siri support and the ability to add doodles and stickers to images. Isn’t it great? But let’s see what’s going to change in more detail.

iPhone users may be able to get these big changes starting from Tuesday, with the next Apple release of iOS 10. As we said above, WhatsApp is going to add Siri support. This new feature will allow users hands-free messaging. And that’s not all. It appears that iOS users will also be able to reply to WhatsApp messages and calls straight in the lockscreen. In addition, it seems that it will soon be possible to make WhatsApp voice calls straight from the contacts list of your iPhone.

These are the changes for iOS users, while those using Android devices have a lot to be happy as well, since some important new features will be added soon. According to Android Police, the new 2.16.262 Beta version of WhatsApp for Android devices adds: image drawing and stickers, bigger emojis, one-finger video zoom and front-facing flash. How do these new features work?

Image drawing and stickers
This new option allows users to draw and add a sticker on an image before it’s sent.

Front-facing flash and one-finger video zoom
Thanks to this interesting new option, it will be easier to take pictures in dark environments, since the screen will be used as a flash. In addition, when you are recording a video, you simply need to slide your finger up and down to zoom in and out.

Finally, the bigger emojis.
We have already talked about this new feature, which will surely be appreciated a lot by WhatsAppers. Thanks to these latest updates, now single emojis will appear significantly larger.

The developers of WhatsApp really never rest, and here we are today, talking again about another update of our favourite instant messaging app. Android users can now upgrade their devices by downloading a new beta version, which comes with number 2.16.260. Unfortunately, this new Beta version doesn’t bring the much awaited Video Calling feature, but it still is advisable to install it on your Android device.

Now let’s see what changes. First of all, this new 2.16.260 Beta version brings the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, and this is essential for the smooth running of the app on your Android device, while the APK (installation) file has been increased by 20KB. In addition, there are 76 modified files (66 of them are related to icons and 3 of them correspond to the drawing and add effects feature). Two files have been removed:  the “ic_draw_oval.png” and the “ic_draw_arrow.png”.

That said, now let’s see how to install this latest update on your Android device. Being this latest version 2.16.260 in Beta phase, only Beta Testers will be able to install it on their Android device. But there is a solution, since you can easily become a Beta Tester too, just following these few steps. Open the Google Play Store webpage clicking on this link. Now simply tap on the  “BECOME A TESTER” button. At this point you’re nearly done. You just have to open the Google Play Store on your Android device and look for WhatsApp 2.16.260. Once you’ve found it, you can install it on your Android device. As simple as that!

If you are not interested in becoming a Beta Tester but still want to install this latest 2.16.260 APK of WhatsApp for Android, you can download it thanks to some safe sources such as APKPolice or APKMirror. In order to download correctly this new APK just remember to enable the “Unknown Sources” option on your device and then follow thoroughly the instructions that you will be given.

A new updated beta version of WhatsApp is already available for Android users. During the last few months WhatsApp’s developers have hugely improved the app’s performances by adding many new useful features and also solving some annoying problems. But this is not the case of this latest 2.16.258 beta version of WhatsApp for Android devices since it doesn’t bring any new features. This latest update essentially just comes with the usual (and necessary) bug fixes.  Nonetheless, it is always advisable to update your Android smartphone with the latest versions of the app in order to use it smoothly.

That said, let’s see more in detail what changes. The changelog of this latest beta release isn’t available, but we can tell you that this latest APK file’s size is 26.43MB and its build number is 451381. Furthermore, this latest updated version of WhatsApp for Android can be installed on any smartphone running Android 2.3.4 or above.

How can you install this latest 2.16.258 beta version of WhatsApp on your Android device? You have two simple options. Here’s the first one. You can become a Beta Tester and download the updates straight from the Google Play Store. Or, if you prefer,  you can download the APK via some safe sources such as APKPolice.com.

Now let’s see how to become a Beta Tester. It is extremely easy. Clicking on this link  you will open the Google Play Store Webpage, where you will be able to tap on the “BECOME A TESTER” button. After that you can open the official Android Store and search for WhatsApp 2.16.258. Once you have found it, you can install it on your Android device. Simple, isn’t it?

As we said above, there is also another easy way to download this latest APK of WhatsApp from sources like APKPolice.com. Just click on this link  and follow the instructions. Just always remember to enable the  “Unknown Sources” option on your device.

What’s happening to WhatsApp? You have probably heard that at the end of August some changes have been done affecting the privacy policies of our favourite mobile messaging application, so let’s see together what happened. By now, we all know that WhasApp was founded by Jan Kuom and Brian Acton in 2009, and acquired by Facebook in 2014.

Since then the growth of the app never stopped, and now WhatsApp is the most successful instant messaging app in the world, with one billion monthly active users (not to mention the voice calls: only in June they were over one million). Well, on the 25th of August the Company announced its decision to change WhatsApp’s privacy policies, so now you will share some of your personal account data with Facebook.The announcement was given through a blog post that said:  “Today, we’re updating WhatsApp’s terms and privacy policy for the first time in four years, as part of our plans to test ways for people to communicate with businesses in the months ahead,”.

The message also explained that “The updated documents also reflect that we’ve joined Facebook and that we’ve recently rolled out many new features, like end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp Calling, and messaging tools like WhatsApp for web and desktop. … But by coordinating more with Facebook, we’ll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp. And by connecting your phone number with Facebook’s systems, Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them.”

While many users are quite disappointed about this change, others have no problem at all and consider it quite obvious since WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. But luckily there is a solution. If you don’t want to share your phone number with Facebook you can easily opt out of this. Let’s see how you can do it. When users launch WhatsApp, a message will be displayed on their screen related to the new Terms and Conditions. From this message we can choose between three options: Agree, Disagree or Read More.

If you don’t want to accept these new conditions just turn off the toggle that suggests to share your mobile number with Facebook. See? Couldn’t be easier. What happens now? And why WhatsApp has introduced this change? As explained by Neurogadget, the purpose of the information sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp is to create better targeted ads which will soon invade WhatsApp as well and to create more efficient solutions for the advertiser and the consumer.

As a consequence, if you opt out of this, you will not receive purchase suggestions from your contacts on Facebook, and you will not receive ads related to your lifestyle as well. So, have you already decided what to do?

Great news for those of you who use WhatsApp with Android devices. Our beloved instant messaging app has been further updated and this new 2.16.256 Beta version comes with the addition of giant emoticons. For the moment these new giant emoticons are active only in the Beta version of WhatsApp for Android, but we are confident that they will soon be available in a stable version of the app.

That said, let’s see what you have to do to use these new giant emoticons. First (and most important) step: how many emoticons are you going to include in your message? In fact, the size of the emoticons will depend on the number of them. So, if you use four or more emoticons, they will be displayed in their normal size. If you insert just two smileys they will be bigger and, obviously, if you insert just one emoticon, it will be extra-large! We are sure that WhatsApp users will really enjoy using these new giant emoticons.

How can you you install this latest 2.16.256 Beta version of WhatsApp on your Android device? Being a Beta, this latest updated version of WhatsApp is currently available on the Google Play Store only for Beta Testers, but don’t worry, you can easily become one of them. How? Just open this link which will bring you to the Google Play Store webpage. Once you’ve opened it, tap on the “BECOME A TESTER” button. Now you can open the official Android Store and search for WhatsApp 2.16.256. Once you have found it, you can install it on your Android device and, after the installation is complete, you will be finally able to use this new giant emoticons.

If you regularly use WhatsApp, you are probably a little bit concerned about some recent news. We are talking about the decision of WhatsApp to share data with Facebook. Probably you were on holiday and have missed the news, so let’s recap what happened. On the 25th of August the company announced this decision through a blog post, explaining that “Today, we’re updating WhatsApp’s terms and privacy policy for the first time in four years, as part of our plans to test ways for people to communicate with businesses in the months ahead,”

In the blog post, the company also added that “The updated documents also reflect that we’ve joined Facebook and that we’ve recently rolled out many new features, like end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp Calling, and messaging tools like WhatsApp for web and desktop.” stating also that “But by coordinating more with Facebook, we’ll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp. And by connecting your phone number with Facebook’s systems, Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them.”

As we said above, the news has created a lot of debate and doesn’t seem to be very appreciated by WhatsApp users. But, luckily, if you don’t want your phone number to be shared with Facebook, there is a solution. In fact there is a way to opt out when you agree to the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of WhatsApp. If you have already clicked ‘agree’ you can still opt out, because you have 30 days starting from the day you agreed to the updates to do it. You just have to open WhatsApp and go to Settings > Account and then tap on the switch next to Share my Account Info. At this point simply press Don’t share.

At least once a week, the developers of WhatsApp roll out a new updated version of the app, and obviously it is advisable to keep your device updated. As you know, one of the many advantages of WhatsApp is that it can be installed on almost any smartphone or mobile device for free. So you can use it with an iPhone, with Windows Phones and so on.

Android users are the majority, for this reason this is the platform that is updated more often. And today we are going to talk about the new 2.16.218 Beta version of WhatsApp for Android devices that has just been released. This latest 2.16.218 APK file has been decreased by 1554KB, and see the addiction of a new Google and Maven icon. Furthermore, 217 files have been deleted and other 830 have been modified.

This new 2.16.218 APK contains also 24 new files, and 20 of them are related to Google services icons and files for handling. Unfortunately, this latest Beta doesn’t add any new features, but, as usual, brings bug fixes and performance improvements. Also, still no signs of the much awaited Video Calling feature. That said, let’s see how to install this latest WhatsApp update on your Android device.

This latest Beta can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, but it is available only for Beta tester. What does it mean? It means that if you want to download it from the official Android Store, you need to become a Beta tester. The procedure is neither difficult nor long. You simply have to open the browser that you usually use on your Android device and open this page and select “BECOME A TESTER”.

At this point you can open the Google Play store and download this latest 2.16.218 APK of WhatsApp for Android devices. Of course there is the risk to encounter some problems or bugs. In this case you need to report them to the developers so they can solve these issues before the release of the next stable version of the app.

Here we are, in the middle of the summer, with a security alert for WhatsApp users. Just a few days ago, we reported the claims of a security expert, who has stated that he was able to find a breach in the security system of WhatsApp. In fact, according to Jonathan Zdziarski (that’s the name of this digital security expert): “The latest version of the app tested leaves forensic trace of all of your chats, even after you’ve deleted, cleared, or archived them… even if you ‘Clear All Chats … In fact, the only way to get rid of them appears to be to delete the app entirely.”

As if it wasn’t enough, today we have another warning coming from a UAE-based non-profit online safety organisation called E-SAFE (Emirates Safer Internet Society). The organisation has warned app users that hackers need only 30 seconds to access into instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp. To prove their thesis, the E-SAFE team has also provided a live demo during a Press conference.

The organisation conducted also a survey, with surprising results. According to this latest E-SAFE research, about 77 per cent of the app users never log out of the WhatsApp-Web (the option that enables users to use WhatsApp through their PC) and about 88 per cent of WhatsApp users let their family members access their phone unattended, while another 22 per cent of users said that they allow their friends to use their devices.

The organisation is convinced that especially WhatsApp-Web is at risk. Al Hashemi from E-SAFE explained: “Once an intruder is in contact with a phone, he can access all content on WhatsApp by scanning the phone’s QR code on a computer through the online WhatsApp site. After the QR code is scanned, the intruder can send messages to all contacts and delete messages from contacts on the app,” .

To solve the issue, the E-SAFE team has also contacted WhatsApp Inc. On the matter, Mohammad Mustafa Saidalavi, founder and chief operating officer of E-SAFE, said that “We have contacted them to urge the app’s makers to introduce a safety notification feature that informs users whenever their WhatsApp account is accessed from any web service,”. For the moment, the only possible reasonable solutions seem to be: not to leave your phones unattended and, once you finish to use it, log out from WhatsApp Web.