Category Archives: NEWS

The year that has just begun seems to confirm the unstoppable success of WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned instant messaging app that in 2016 was able to reach the incredible amount of 1 billion monthly active users. And to confirm the positive trend, the company has revealed the last impressive result: during New Year’s Eve 63 billion WhatsApp messages were sent globally. Isn’t it incredible?

Obviously, this is a record for our beloved instant messaging app, considering that only in India the messages sent were 14 billion. Surprised by these numbers? Let’s see how it was possible to reach this result according to the statement released by WhatsApp itself to Venture Beat.

As we said, of the total of the 63 billion messages 7.9 billion were images and 2.4 billion videos. In India, where WhatsApp messages sent have been 14 billion, the 32% of users sent media messages such as GIF images, videos, voice messages and photos. 3.1 billion of images have been shared between Indian users, along with 700 million GIF images and 610 million videos.

We can easily say that the incredible success of WhatsApp during the last Christmas holidays was possible also thanks to the recent updates added to the app during the last few months. We are talking about the ability to share animated GIF images, just to give you an example. Or also the ability to stream shared videos, which enables users to view videos before they were downloaded. Not to mention the new and much awaited Video Calling feature.

The New Year’s Eve meant also the end of an era. If you are a WhatsApper you know that we are talking about the end of WhatsApp support on older versions of Android, iOS and Windows Phone. So, starting from the 1st of January 2017, WhatsApp won’t work anymore on devices running on Android 2.2 or lower, iOS 6 or lower, and Windows Phone 7.

Further updates on the horizon for WhatsAppers who use Windows Phone devices. The new Beta version has just been released, and a new, hidden feature has been spotted. This latest 2.16.316.0 Beta version of WhatsApp for Windows Phone is available for Windows 10 Mobile and Windows Phone 8.1 users, and even though it seems a regular beta with just bug fixes and performance improvements, it contains a new hidden feature.

This new hidden option is the My Status feature, and those of you who are familiar with Snapchat may already know how it works. But let’s see what is it. The My Status feature simply lets users post time-limited status update images to their contact list. Furthermore, users will be enable to customize those images. But, as we said, for the moment this new My Status option is not yet officially available, so WhatsApp users will have to wait to be able to use the feature.

During the year we could notice that the life of instant messaging services in Europe has become particularly difficult, mainly for privacy issues, and apps such our beloved WhatsApp may be forced to change their policy. It seems that the European Commission intends to update its privacy rules for services such as Skype and WhatsApp, making them subject to the same European Union regulations as telephone calls and SMS text messages. At least this is what a leaked legislative draft reveals.

But what will be changed? According to Politico, a new regulation will replace the 2002 ePrivacy Directive. With the new regulation all calls made with electronic communications will be confidential, thus listening, monitoring and interfering with such calls without users’ consent will be prohibited.

According to this leaked draft: “The settings of all the components of the terminal equipment placed on the market shall be configured to, by default, prevent third parties from storing information, processing information already stored in the terminal equipment and preventing the use by third parties of the equipment’s processing capabilities.”. The draft also adds: “The use of electronic communications services by natural or legal persons for the purposes of transmitting direct marketing communications is allowed only in respect of end-users who have given their prior consent.”

The year that is coming to an end has been really memorable for WhatsApp. The growing number of the users of this Facebook-owned app (which are now more than a billion all over the world) has confirmed its leadership in the field of instant messaging, and thanks to the hard work of its developers WhatsApp is noticeably improved, offering its users a wide range of services. All for free.

We have all seen that during the last year all the platforms supporting the service (first of all Android, but iOS, Windows Phone and iPhone as well) have frequently received major updates along with bug fixes and stability improvements. Obviously the most awaited feature was the Video Calling option, and that one too has been recently added to the app. Well, today there are other great news.

According to WABeta Info, thanks to the latest Beta version 2.17.1.869, iOS users will soon be able to revoke text messages sent by mistake, videos images and even edit them and send them again. Isnt’ it great? Certainly it happened to everyone to send a message to the wrong recipient, or with the wrong attachment. Well, now problem solved! Actually, this new option has not yet been confirmed by WhatsApp, so it easy to imagine that they are still testing the feature before making it official.

But how does this new feature work? According to WABetaInfo, in order to use this new Revoke option users just have to tap the message that they have just sent. After that it will be possible to select the new Revoke option from the menu that will pop up. And that’s not all. It seems also that senders will also be able to revoke messages that are already visible by the recipient.

As we said above, for the moment this new feature has been spotted only with the new Beta version 2.17.1.869 of WhatsApp for iOS devices, but it is not difficult to imagine that it will soon be added to the other platforms, especially Android.

If you use WhatsApp (and it is unlikely that you don’t, since the app has now more that 1 billion active monthly users all over the world), you are certainly aware that the service is constantly transforming, thanks to the frequent addition of new features.

And that’s not all, since the developers of WhatsApp often roll out new versions of the app containing bug fixes and performance improvements. And this is exactly the case of the new Beta version of WhatsApp for Android we are going to talk about today.

As we said, this latest 2.16.392 update doesn’t come with any new features, but instead brings bug fixes and stability improvements. So you might think about installing it on your Android device. Let’s see how you can download it. Since this latest 2.16.392 is still in Beta phase, you will be able to download it only if you are a Beta Tester. What if you are not? You can easily solve this problem, because to become a WhatsApp Beta Tester you just need to head to this Google Play Store webpage and tap on the “BECOME A TESTER” button.

Once you are officially a Beta tester you can open the Android store, search for WhatsApp 2.16.392 Beta and then you can safely install it on your Android device. Once the installation process is complete, you just have to remember to use you mobile phone number to log into your WhatsApp account. So, a real no-brainer.

If you are not interested in becoming a Beta tester, you can download this latest 2.16.392 Beta version using some other safe sites such as APK mirror which let you download the APK file.

If WhatsApp users are very happy to be finally able to use the Video Calling feature, they will be even more delighted to get in touch with their contacts using the Multi-Video Calling option. Rumors are that this feature might soon be added to the service, enabling WhatsApp users to have Video Calling sessions with three, four or even more contacts at the same time. But the developers have not yet confirmed the news, so we just have to wait and see what will happen.

Today we are going to talk about the latest release of WhatsApp that the developers have just made available for Nokia Symbian and Nokia Belle users. This latest Beta version, which comes with number 2.16.57, weighs 5.7MB and, even though it doesn’t bring any new feature, comes with bug fixes and performance improvements. So it is certainly advisable to spend some time to install it on your Nokia device.

If you are wondering where you can find this latest 2.16.57 beta release of WhatsApp for Nokia Symbian and Nokia Belle, it’s good to know that it is already available for download on the official WhatsApp website. As usual, it is not difficult to install the update on your device, you simply have to download the .sis file on your Nokia smartphone and then run it.

Unfortunately these old versions of Nokia smartphones don’t provide their users the new features that are available on other platforms such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone. So, to give you an example, Nokia Symbian and Nokia Belle users will not be able to use the much awaited video calling feature, just added on the other platforms. And everything let us think that these new options will never be added to Nokia Symbian and Nokia Belle devices.

That’s because from January 2017 WhatsApp will stop supporting outdated models, and sadly Nokia Symbian and Nokia Belle are included in this list. But it’s good to know that whilst for Android 2.1 and Android 2.2, Windows Phone 7, iPhone 3GS/ iOS 6 the support will stop by the end of 2016, the support for Nokia Symbian and Nokia Belle has been prolonged until the end of June 2017.

But what are the reasons behind this decision? A spokesperson of WhatsApp explained it using these words:  “While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they do not offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future,” and stating also that  “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,”.

So you still have a few months to enjoy the app on your Nokia smartphone, and in the meantime we are sure you will find another way to use WhatsApp.

The announcement was given earlier this year, and now it is important that all WhatsApp users check their smartphones since they risk to be too old to keep on supporting the app. In February WhatsApp has announced that by the end of 2016 outdated models will not be able to run anymore the service, because the company intends to focus on other newer mobile platforms.

In a blog post, the owners of the app explained that: “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,”.

Apparently this was not an easy decision for the instant messaging service. According to a spokesperson of WhatsApp “While these mobile devices have been an important part of our story, they do not offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app’s features in the future,” adding that “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,”.

And we have certainly noticed that during the last few months WhatsApp has received several and major updates, and it seems that other important new features are coming, features that need new models of smartphones. So let’s recap which mobile platforms versions will definitely stop working by the end of December 2016:

• Android 2.1 and Android 2.2
• Windows Phone 7
• iPhone: 3GS/ iOS 6

Also Blackberry 10 running on BBOS and Nokia S40 running on Symbian S40 are part of this list, but the support has been extended until June 2017.

So remember to check on your device version before the year ends, otherwise you risk to have the service blocked. We are confident that this decision will unlikely affect the success of the app (which now have more than one billion monthly active users), also because the service will still be supported by most of the Android devices. Furthermore, it’s probable that the majority of WhatsApp users will be more than happy to upgrade their devices, and not just in order to use WhatsApp.

If you are addicted to WhatsApp, you certainly know that the developers of the app constantly roll out updated versions of our beloved app, and yet it never stops to amaze us to see that quite every day we can download another better version of WhatsApp. Android is the platform that usually receives first (and more often) the updates since it has the majority of users, but the other platforms are kept updated as well. That said, let’s see what’s new today.

A new APK version of WhatsApp is already available for Android users. This latest updated version is number 2.16.371 and weighs 31.8 MB. Even if it does not bring any new features, it comes with the usual performance improvements and bug fixes, so it is certainly advisable to download it. If you are disappointed because this new version does not bring new features, remember that recently the app has been updated a lot and now Android users of WhatsApp are allowed to make Voice and Video Calls, can send and receive animated GIFs, and a lot more.

And these are just some of the enhancements that have been done recently. Furthermore, according to some rumors another great feature will be added soon to the app: the Multiple Video Calling feature, which will make it possible to add two or more users in the same video chat. But, for the moment, these rumors have to be confirmed by the developers of WhatsApp.

Now let’s see how this latest 2.16.371 beta version of WhatsApp can be installed on your Android device. As usual, there are two ways. The first one is via the official Android Store, and it is applicable only if you are a Beta Tester of WhatsApp. If you are not yet a Beta Tester but wish to join the service, you simply have to open the Google Play Store webpage and tap on the “BECOME A TESTER” button.

Once you have followed this procedure you can open the official Android store, look for the update you are interested in and tap on the “Install” button. The other way to download this latest APK file of WhatsApp for Android is through some safe sources such as APKMirror.