This recent update of WhatsApp will certainly make Android users very happy. A new interesting feature has been added to Beta version 2.17.6, allowing WhatsApp users to search for GIFs from within the app thanks to the addition of a built-in GIF search engine. Let’s see what changes.
Before this update, Android users could only send GIFs that were already downloaded on their device. Or, as an alternative, they could use third party apps. But now, thanks to the addition of this new feature, WhatsApp users can easily search for new GIFs. It is possible to use this new feature by simply tapping the emoji button that is located to the left of the text field. After that a menu will pop up with a list of options. Now users will be able to search for a specific keyword and the results will come from GIF platforms such as Giphy and Tenor.
But Beta version 2.17.6 of WhatsApp for Android has another surprise for the joy of its users, since another useful option has been added. Users have now the ability to send up to 30 photos in a single message (so far the limit was just 10). Isn’t it great? Quite oddly, these new features for the moment are not available with the latest 2.17.8 beta version, but we expect that they will be added soon to a stable one. In the mean time you can download the APK from some safe sites such as APK Mirror.
Despite the growing success (now WhatsApp has more than one billion active users all over the world), the life of this Facebook-owned instant messaging app is far from being easy. Always under the spotlights and criticized by competitors and governments, now the app must face new allegations of a security flaw which allows governments and hackers to access users’ texts.
Obviously Facebook claims that the flaw, found by Tobias Boelter (a cryptography and security researcher at the University of California, Berkley), doesn’t exist and that no one can intercept WhatsApp messages, but reports have claimed the contrary. Boelter told The Guardian that ‘If WhatsApp is asked by a government agency to disclose its messaging records, it can effectively grant access due to the change in keys‘. How can it happen?
As we know, thanks to the ‘end-to-end’ encryption, messages are visible only to the person who has sent them and to the contacts who receive them. This happens by using a ‘lock’, which is paired with a ‘key’ that just senders and recipients have. Well, according to these recent allegations, WhatsApp has the ability to force these keys and re-encrypt messages, without the contacts being aware.
And that’s not all. According to The Guardian, Tobias Boelter reported this flaw to Facebook in April 2016. At the time Facebook replied that they were aware of the problem, but nothing was done. Let’s see in the next few weeks what will be the reaction of WhatsApp.