Category Archives: NEWS

If you are an avid user of WhatsApp, you already know that our beloved Facebook-owned app regularly receives (almost every week) updates. And the developers of WhatsApp pay a particular attention to the Android platform, being the one that is used by most of the people. And here we are today talking about a new Beta version of WhatsApp for Android.

This latest 2.16.189 Beta version add two new important features to the app: 1) a Call Back option; 2) a Voicemail option. How do they work? First of all, obviously, you have to download this latest update, which, if you are a Beta Tester, you can already find on the Google Play Store. Now that your Android device is updated with the latest version of WhatsApp, let’s see how to use these two new options, which are clearly extensions of the WhatsApp Calling feature.

Probably you remember we have already heard about these options in April, when they have been first spotted, and now they are finally available. Well, let’s suppose that you call one of your contact (it doesn’t matter if the recipient has not yet downloaded the latest version of the app) and the person doesn’t answer or decline the call, what happens? You will see a new screen with this message ‘Call declined’ accompanied by three options: Cancel, Call back, Record voice message.

Using the Cancel option you will close the new screen, with the Call Back option you’ll be able to call back your contact. The last option allows you to record a message: just hold to record, and once you have finished, you will see your message in the chat conversation between you and the recipient.

So, definitely a great update, which will make us love WhatsApp even more. And all of this just after a few days from the addition of a new font.

For those of you who use WhatsApp via Windows Phone devices, today we have some news that will certainly cheer you up. In fact many of you have complained because the app wasn’t working properly due to a bug, with messages sometimes getting lost in the middle of conversation.

The bug caused connection disruptions between users’ phones and the servers, so that messages were no longer sent or received. So far, users have partially solved the issue by unlocking the phone, launching WhatsApp and opening the conversation again. This procedure allowed to reestablish again the connection between the phone and the server, restoring the synchronization. Well, thanks to this latest update, users won’t run into this problem again.

Even if the change log doesn’t give many details, this latest version finally brings this essential and much awaited improvement. Now you should not encounter anymore this bug, and WhatsApp Web should work properly with Windows Phone. So, if you are an avid WhatsApp user, we strongly recommend you to install this latest version on your device. You can already find this latest update on the store and, as usual, you can download it for free.

Good news also for Brazilian users, after the federal supreme court has suspended a judge’s ruling that ordered mobile phone companies to indefinitely block access to WhatsApp (for the third time in eight months). The decision was taken by judge Daniela Barbosa who claimed that WhatsApp’s owner (Facebook) had shown “total disrespect for Brazilian laws” after the company’s refusal to intercept messages sent through its service in order to help in a criminal investigation.

But the supreme court president Ricardo Lewandowski decided otherwise, saying that the ruling seemed “scarcely reasonable or proportional.” The decision has obviously been commented by Jan Koum, WhatsApp’s CEO, who, in a post on Facebook, stated: “It’s shocking that less than two months after Brazilian people and lawmakers loudly rejected blocks of services like WhatsApp, history is repeating itself.”

Starting from this week, Android and iOS beta testers of WhatsApp will be able to use a new font. This new font, which users call ‘FixedSys‘ because it resembles Microsoft’s font, is available with the latest 2.16.179 beta version of WhatsApp for Android on the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, for the moment we are not able to tell you when this new font will be released as a stable version.

That said, what is this new font and how can you use it? It’s quite simple to use FixedSys: you just have to add the grave accent symbol (`) three times before and after the word or phrase. In this way, before sending your message, you will see a preview of this new font, that makes your text appear expanded and also the letters will have a space between them. It seems quite funny, isn’t it?

If you wish to try FixedSys, you need to remember that you cannot mix it together with other formatting options such as italics or bold. And in fact, this latest formatting update follows the one introduced a few months ago, which allows users to write in italics, bold or strikethrough. WhatsApp users are still waiting the stable release of some new features that for now are available only as beta versions: we are talking about the larger emojis and the group invite links. And of course, most of all, we are all waiting to use the video calling option.

For better or for worse, it is an undeniable fact that nowadays WhatsApp influences our lives and it is difficult to imagine how was our life before the arrival of this Facebook-owned instant messaging app. Sadly, during the last few months, WhatsApp has been often used to share and divulge violent plans. And what happened this week is jut the last example of the misuse of WhatsApp.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported that on Sunday it obtained a series of conversations revealing the plan for Turkey’s attempted coup. Therefore Al Jazeera Arabic broadcast some messages sent through WhatsApp by those involved in the coup. Among the revelations, there were the orders for soldiers, or even the order to fire against the hotel where the President Erdogan was staying on Friday evening. And we all know how it ended.

There is a new Beta update available for those of you who use WhatsApp with Android devices. With this latest Beta we are at version 2.16.174 that weighs 27.78 MB. Unfortunately this latest update doesn’t bring any new feature, but luckily for us there are bug fixes and performance improvements, so it is advisable to install it on your Android device.

If you are a Beta Tester you can already download this latest 2.16.174 Beta version of WhatsApp for Android straight from the Google Play Store, otherwise, if you are not a Beta tester, you can download it from other safe sources such as APKMirror. During the last few months many features have been added to the app, but the one we are all waiting for is the video calling option, which a couple of months ago seemed very close to be released. What happened? Who knows …

What we do know is that the recent addition of the end-to-end encryption (the option that makes messages accessible only by the sender and recipient) is now a reality, and the debate around it never stops. And today we have some odd news reporting that WhatsApp is blocking encrypted calls to Saudi Arabia. Isn’t it strange? Let’s see what’s happening. Nadim Kobeissi, a developer famous for the encrypted chat app Criptocat, wrote a post with serious accusations toward the app.

That’s what he posted talking about WhatsApp: “chose to block calls in their apps so that the Saudi government wouldn’t blanket-block regular WhatsApp messages” adding that “Because of the way WhatsApp clients communicate with WhatsApp servers, I find it impossible to believe that the Saudi government could drop phone calls and not messages, especially at the key exchange level (which occurs bundled atop a regular Signal session!) This makes me suspect that the WhatsApp client itself is dropping calls if the caller/callee is registered with a +966 number.”

Obviously WhatsApp rejects any accusation, while Kobeissi insists on his position saying that: “I strongly urge that WhatsApp stop blocking encrypted phone calls based on phone number and allow Saudis to communicate safely. At the very least, WhatsApp should allow users with Saudi numbers to make calls when using data and WiFi networks that are outside Saudi jurisdiction.“

What more can we say about WhatsApp? By now it is well known that it is the most successful instant messaging app in the world, there are over 1 billion active monthly users to confirm this data. This beloved multi-platform mobile messaging app not only allows us to exchange text and voice messages for free, but can be installed mostly on any smartphone or mobile device. And much more. For example you can use WhatsApp to compress images and videos and then send them to your contacts, or even call your friends.

If we have any doubt about the supremacy of WhatsApp, today we have a recent study by Global Web Index that shows us once again how much users love (and use) this app. According to the survey, WhatsApp has eight out of every 10 users who use the app everyday, while Facebook Messenger has “only” six out of every 10 users who engage with it everyday. These data don’t surprise us very much, since Facebook users have never been fans of the Messenger for several reasons.

First of all the design: WhatsApp’s much better. And then possible privacy issues. So, once again, recent results confirm that Mark Zuckerberg’s acquisition in 2014 has been a wise move. $19 billion dollars really well spent. Just think that in March the Facebook-owned app reached 1 billion downloads on its Android platform.

You might think that there are a lot of people to provide such a good service. Well, you are wrong. That’s what Jan Koum, WhatsApp CEO and co-funder, has written about this result: “WhatsApp crossed 1B Android downloads. btw our android team is four people + Brian. very small team, very big impact.”  Not bad for a man whose idea was initially rejected by Facebook and Twitter. In fact both Jan Koum and Brian Acton, who were colleagues at Yahoo, failed their interviews at Facebook and Twitter. And the rest is history.

Unfortunately, we have sad news for Symbian smartphones users. WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging app, will officially stop supporting Symbian OS by the end of this year.  The owners of the service had already warned their users at the beginning of the year, and now the decision has been made official through a message that appears to every WhatsApp users on Symbian OS: “Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use WhatsApp after 31/12/2016 because WhatsApp will no longer support your phone.”

So, after 31/12/2016, Symbian users won’t be able to use WhatsApp anymore. Why the decision to stop the support for the platform? WhatsApp is not the only service that has ended the support for Symbian OS and several other modern services have already done the same. Compatibility problems, number of users and other reasons have lead the company to this choice. As we said, it is a sad moment for Symbian users, but at least WhatsApp has tried  to prolong as much as possible its support for Symbian OS and so far has kept the service regularly updated.

But July 2016 will probably be best remembered for a new phenomenon: Pokémon Go. This new game, launched on the 6th of July, has already been installed on more Android devices than Tinder and it is almost overtaking Twitter for number of active users.  It seems that Pokémon Go has really bewitched men and women of all ages, since they are spending more time playing with it than using other popular apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram.

But what is Pokémon Go? This new game, inspired by the classic old franchise with enhanced reality, enables players to ramble around their neighbourhoods while looking for Pokémon game characters on their smartphone screens. A real scavenger hunt that has quickly gained an incredible popularity and a special place in users’ hearts. So, what do you think, is it just because it’s summer and people want to have fun, or people are already bored to chat?

It’s July, time for holidays, and certainly many of you are almost leaving for the well deserved summer break. And of course many of you will enjoy sharing pictures and videos of the holiday thanks to WhatsApp. The service is not going on holiday, on the contrary, WhatsApp’s developers keep on releasing updated versions of our favourite instant messaging app.

And today we are going to talk about the new updated version of WhatsApp for Android devices. With this latest APK, WhatsApp for Android jumps to version number 2.16.161. The size of this latest APK is of 27.75MB and it brings the usual bug fixes and performance improvements. Who can install this latest version of WhatsApp? First of all beta testers, who can already download this latest 2.16.161 version from the Google Play Store. Those users who are not yet beta testers can download the APK from the official website of WhatsApp or from other sites such as APK Mirror. In this case, in order to complete the download successfully, always remember to enable the Unknown Sources option.

Even if WhatsApp is now the most used instant messaging app in the world with 1 billion monthly users (with more than 100 million calls per day, which means over 1,100 calls a second), Brian Acton (WhatsApp co-founder) is currently showing a big interest in other kind of investments as well. Latest news report that Acton, along with other investors whose names are still a secret, put some money in a Gurgaon-base car tracking telematics solutions startup called Trak N Tell.

So far, these investors have given the startup about $3.5 millions. But what is Trak N Tell? The company, which was founded in 2007, provides sophisticated vehicle telematics solutions. Talking about Brian Acton, Pranshu Gupta, chief executive of Trak N Tell, said: “We are very pleased to have Brian on board, and he’s been of tremendous help in terms of strategising, and planning for the company’s next stage of growth” .  We are obviously curious to see if this startup will turn out as successful as WhatsApp.