It has been a week full of news for WhatsAppers. In fact, the world of instant messaging is still debating the announcement given just a couple of days ago by the popular instant messaging app about the introduction of a new encryption technology, and here we are, WhatsApp developers have already released more updates.
So, Windows Phone users get ready to upgrade WhatsApp on their devices with this new 2.16.10 version of WhatsApp for Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile. What changes? It seems that there aren’t significant changes besides the usual bug fixes and performance updates. Some users that have already installed this latest 2.16.10 version are reporting that on Windows 10 Mobile devices such as Lumia 950, 950XL and 1520, issues concerning the font-size have been fixed.
Furthermore, once you download this updated version, you will also notice that the appearance of the app has been improved, with the addition of a wider variety of different screen sizes. And what about the changelog? Well, there is no changelog for this latest 2.16.10 version of WhatsApp for Windows Phone on the Windows Store. Obviously, the end-to-end encryption change is already available.
Jan Koum and Brian Acton (WhatsApp founders) considered it so important that they made the change available on all platforms supporting WhatsApp simultaneously. And while WhatsApp founders explain their choice, stating that “While we recognize the important work of law enforcement in keeping people safe, efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing people’s information to abuse from cybercriminals, hackers, and rogue states.”, some unclear points on this decision are emerging.
If you take a look at WhatsApp’s Privacy page (as probably many of you have already done), you’ll discover that the app may retain the so-called metadata (date and time stamp information): “WhatsApp may retain date and time stamp information associated with successfully delivered messages and the mobile phone numbers involved in the messages, as well as any other information which WhatsApp is legally compelled to collect“. What does it mean? According to the Independent, it means that WhatsApp servers are still potentially vulnerable to hacking or to government requests.