Tag: WhatsApp

WhatsApp suffers global outage

WhatsApp suffered a global outage on New Year’s Day 2018 for about an hour before the problem was fixed.

A spokesperson of the messaging platform confirmed the development, but said experts at the social media firm immediately had no idea what happened.

“WhatsApp users around the world experienced a brief outage today that has now been resolved,” a WhatsApp spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

“The cause of the outage, about an hour long, was not immediately known,” the statement added.

In Nigeria, one of WhatsApp’s biggest markets, the app was down just a few minutes past midnight into the New Year.

Users in other countries also complained of outages on social media.

While the firm did not expressly state the cause of the downtime, it might not be unconnected to the volume of data peddled on the platform between the night of December 31st 2017 and January 1st 2018.

January 2, 2018
Former Facebook VP says Social Media is ‘Destroying the Fabrics of Society’

Former Facebook Vice President for User Growth has criticised social media for “destroying how society works”.

Chamath Palihapitiya said he feels “tremendous guilt” for having created tools “that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”.

The YouTube video of his talk at Stanford Graduate School of Business, which took place in November, surfaced on The Verge with Palihapitiya saying it is not just about Facebook, but that the entire social media industry is to be blamed for “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology”.

The ex-Facebook VP claimed that he tries to use Facebook as little as possible. “I can’t control them,” Palihapitiya reportedly said of Facebook.

“I can control my decision, which is that I don’t use that sh**. I can control my kids’ decisions, which is that they’re not allowed to use that sh**”.

The problem isn’t just about fake news and hate speech in the US, he mentions, “this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem”.

He expanded this stance by pointing towards a recent incident in India where hoax messages on WhatsApp allegedly led to lynchings of innocent people. Bad actors, willing enough, are capable enough of orchestrating such incidents at their will, is what Palihapitiya believes is the problem with social media.

He did, however, mention that Facebook “overwhelmingly does good in the world”.

This stance amplifies the perception of major social media platforms having an unfair advantage over public discourse in the world.

Some users believe that political incidents like Trump’s presidential win and Britain’s exit from the EU are to be blamed, in part, on manipulative information shared on platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook, both owned by the same company.

Social media isn’t the only topic that Palihapitiya talked about at the event.

He also said that the entire Silicon Valley venture funding model was broken as investors are apparently pumping money into “sh*tty, useless, idiotic companies,” instead of the real environmental and healthcare issues, according to Palihapitiya who runs a VC firm called Social Capital, which focuses on companies in education and healthcare sectors.

December 12, 2017
Video Calling: WhatsApp brings the feature you’ve been waiting for

WhatsApp went from a text messaging app to a video calling app last year, but it doesn’t seem to be done with the feature just yet.

The app looks set to get picture-in-picture functionality, a new feature that will make video calls more convenient in case users want to continue chatting even as they make a video call.

The new WhatsApp picture-in-picture mode for video calling has been spotted in app version 2.17.265 running on the Android O Developer Preview. This adds to the growing list of WhatsApp features released or spotted testing in 2017.

As per a tweet by WABetaInfo, which has a good track record when it comes to details of forthcoming WhatsApp features, the PIP mode inside WhatsApp app was spotted on version 2.17.265 of the Android app and was turned on by default on Android O developer preview.

WABetaInfo further clarified that Android 8.0 O has a particular API that was used by WhatsApp for enabling this feature.

From the image shared of the feature in action, it is currently unclear if WhatsApp users will be able to move this PIP window around on the screen or it will stay at a fixed position. Further it is unclear if the video chat will continue in PIP mode if users switch to other apps. We might have to wait for this feature to roll out widely to get more clarity, but this definitely seems like a useful feature that can prove to be of help to all WhatsApp users on Android, if it is implemented well.

With the PIP mode, WhatsApp users will get the convenience to continue the conversations via video chat while browsing through their text messages. As this feature has been spotted on Android, we will have to wait and see if it will make its way to iPhone soon as well, though given the fact the new feature is said to be using Android O’s APIs, that might be a little difficult.

Earlier this week, WhatsApp for iPhone got an update that brought features like ability to pin chats, share any file type, and more. The app was also seen to bring a hidden feature – the ability to play WhatsApp videos without leaving the app.

July 20, 2017
WhatsApp set to integrate Payments Feature

Facebook-owned WhatsApp is said to be integrating a Unified Payment Interface (UPI) that will enable users make payments on the platform.

Several popular messaging services including WeChat and Hike Messenger already support payment services. However, WhatsApp, which is the most popular messaging app in Nigeria, has been known to take its time, and include features only when they are polished.

The messaging app is expected to roll out the payments feature by the end of the year, a person familiar with the matter said.

The person said the feature will first be available in India before it will launch in other spheres.

WhatsApp is in advanced talks with banks and lobby organisation NPCI to add support for UPI-based payments on its app in India, the person said requesting anonymity.

Because of several moving pieces that are involved in the talks and implementation in India, the rollout of the UPI on WhatsApp could see a slight delay, the person said, but added that so far the things are chugging along smoothly.

When this finally rolls out in Nigeria, sending money to friends and families would become way easy.

July 11, 2017
NCC releases guide to guard against Petya ransomware
After Petya ransomware paralyzed connected systems worldwide, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has released a guide to ward off the menace in Nigeria.

Although the country is yet to report any case of the Petya ransomware attack, the NCC is saying individuals and organisations should take necessary precautions because the spread of Petya indicates many may still be vulnerable.

The telecoms regulator says the new ransomware that it likened to WannaCry is spreading around the globe speedily, and stressed Petya “…has a better mechanism for spreading itself than WannaCry”.

“The malicious software spreads rapidly across an organization once a computer is infected using the Eternal Blue vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. Like WannaCry, Petya ransomware takes over the computers and demands $300 paid in Bitcoin,” said NCC.

NCC stated three mechanisms by which Petya spreads to additional hosts to include:
- Petya scans the local system 24/7 to discover enumerate ADMINS shares on other systems, then copies itself to those hosts and executes the malware using PSEXEC. This is only possible if the infected user has the rights to write files and execute them on system hosting the share.
- Petya uses the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) tool to connect to hosts on the local subnet and attempts to execute itself remotely on those hosts. It can use Mimikatz to extract credentials from the infected system and use them to execute itself on the targeted host.
- Petya finally attempts to use the ETERNALBLUE exploit tool against hosts on the local subnet. This will only be successful if the targeted host does not have the MS17-010 patches deployed.
“The general public is advised not to panic as demonstrated during the WannaCry attacks in May, 2017. Windows systems should be patched for this vulnerability by competent personnel,” NCC stated.

The Commission advised both individuals and organizations to note and observe the following to guide against the ransomware:
- Do not click on any suspicious or unknown links.
- Protect yourself when using public Wi-Fi.
- Do not visit unsafe and unreliable sites.
- Avoid clicking on links that leads to websites such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp etc. Instead it is much safer to visit the site directly through their URL.
- If you receive a message or email with an attachment, try to verify authenticity of the sender before opening.
- Do not open attachments from suspicious senders.
- Store all your documents in ‘my document folder’.
- Keep your files backed up regularly.
June 30, 2017
Suicide bombers deploy Telegram app in Saint Petersburg bombing

Investigation by Russia’s FSB security agency on Monday has revealed that Telegram messaging service was used by those behind the Saint Petersburg metro bombing.

“During the probe into the April 3 terrorist attack in the Saint Petersburg metro, the FSB received reliable information about the use of Telegram by the suicide bomber, his accomplices and their mastermind abroad to conceal their criminal plans,” the FSB said in a statement.

The FSB statement said that the terrorists used the Telegram app “at each stage of the preparation of this terrorist attack”.

The Saint Petersburg bombing took the lives of fifteen people, and the Imam Shamil Battalion, a group suspected to have links to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility of the attack.

Telegram is a free Russian-designed messaging app that lets people exchange messages, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000.

It has attracted about 100 million users since its launch in 2013.

But the service has drawn the ire of critics who say it can let criminals and terrorists communicate without fear of being tracked by police, pointing in particular to its use by Islamic State jihadists.

The app is one of several targeted in a legal crackdown by Russian authorities on the internet and on social media sites in particular.

Since January 1, internet companies have been required to store all users’ personal data at data centres in Russia and provide it to the authorities on demand.

Draft legislation that has already secured initial backing in Russian parliament would make it illegal for messaging services to have anonymous users, but Telegram’s Russian chief executive, Pavel Durov feels this will compromise the privacy of the app users.

He stressed that compromising the privacy of Telegram’s users would force them, including “high-ranking Russian officials,” to communicate via apps based in the United States like Facebook-owned WhatsApp.

32-year-old Durov created Russia’s popular VKontakte social media site before founding Telegram in the United States.

June 26, 2017
WhatsApp emerges major news distribution platform ahead of Facebook

Instant messaging service, WhatsApp has emerged as the major news distribution platform in news media ahead of Facebook Messenger.

This is according to Digital News Report 2017.

The report surveyed top messaging applications used for news, and found out WhatsApp leads the pack.

“We’ve been tracking the growth of WhatsApp for some time but its use for news has jumped significantly in the last year to 15 percent, with considerable country-based variation,” said the authors of the Digital News Report 2017.

The apps surveyed include WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Viber, WeChat, Kakao Talk, and among others.

Over half of the survey respondents in Malaysia (51 percent) said they used WhatsApp for sharing or discussing news in a given week, as compared with just three percent in the US.

Besides Malaysia, the use of WhatsApp for news is starting to rival Facebook in a number of markets, including Brazil (46 percent), and Spain (32 percent).

The researchers found that the use of Facebook for news has dipped in most of the countries they surveyed.

This may just be a sign of market saturation, or it may relate to changes in Facebook algorithms in 2016, which prioritised friends and family communication over professional news content, according to the report.

The research, carried out by the Reuters Institute For The Study of Journalism, analysed data from 34 countries in Europe, the Americas and Asia, besides Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The study involved responses from over 70,000 people.

Overall, around a quarter (23 percent) of the respondents said they now find, share, or discuss news using one or more of the messaging applications.

The researchers found that Viber is a popular choice in parts of Southern and Eastern Europe, while a range of chat applications are used for news across Asia, including WeChat in Hong Kong (14 percent) and Malaysia (13 percent), Line in Taiwan (45 percent) and Japan (13 percent), while home-grown Kakao Talk (39 percent) is the top messaging app in South Korea.

At a time when the social media platforms are facing criticism for not doing enough to stop the spread of fake news, the report also revealed that only 24 percent of the respondents think social media do a good job in separating fact from fiction, compared to 40 percent for the news media.

Source

June 22, 2017
WhatsApp extends support for BlackBerry OS yet again

Back in February last year, WhatsApp announced that it will stop supporting versions of BlackBerry OS – including BlackBerry 10 – by the end of 2016.

That, however didn’t happen, and the date was pushed to June 30, 2017.

Now, the Facebook-owned service has confirmed that the support has been extended yet again till 31 December 2017 this time.

Aside from BlackBerry, support for Nokia S40 has also been extended.

“We will extend BlackBerry until the end of 2017. Nokia S40 longer supported until the end of 2018,” whatsappen.nl quotes WhatsApp co-founder, Brian Acton, as saying.

In fact, WhatsApp’s Blackberry client has started receiving a new update, with change-log clearly saying: changed client end-of-life date to December 31, 2017.

The app, however, will stop working on Nokia S60 devices after June 30 2017.

June 21, 2017
How to stop WhatsApp from downloading, saving photos, videos automatically
WhatsApp is used by over a 1.2 billion people worldwide. It is probably one of the first apps anyone in Nigeria downloads when they get a new smartphone as it has become the default means of texting in the country.

However, it can become an annoyance too when it downloads all media files automatically sent to you, from pictures to videos to, more recently, GIFs, not to mention audio files and videos.

These not only clutter your phone’s gallery and music player, but also eat up a lot of storage and data.

Here’s how you can stop WhatsApp from automatically saving photos and audio on your phone.

How to Stop Auto Downloading and Saving of Pictures, Videos and Other Media on Whatsapp for Android

WhatsApp for Android has a switch that lets you stop images and videos from downloading. Here’s how you can do it:
1. Open WhatsApp, make sure you are seeing the main window – where all your chats are displayed. Tap the three vertical dots on the top right > Settings.
2. Now tap Chat settings > Media auto-download. You’ll see three options: When using cellular data, When connected on Wi-Fi and When roaming. Tap each one and disable auto-downloads by unchecking all three options – Images, Audio and Video.
To view photos, you will have to download them. When you do, WhatsApp saves them in a folder, and you can get inundated with stupid memes and other unwanted content, which is visible to anyone who open’s your phone’s Gallery App. However, it is possible to stop these photos from appearing in the Gallery app. Here’s how:
1. Download Quickpic and open the app.
2. Navigate to the WhatsApp media folders. The location of the WhatsApp folder varies across devices but it should typically be the following: Internal Storage (sometimes labelled sdcard0) > WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Images, > WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Audio, and WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Videos.
3. Long-press the WhatsApp Images folder and make sure that it is selected. Do the same with the WhatsApp Video and WhatsApp Audio folders.
4. After selecting the three folders, tap the three dots icon on the top-right > Hide. This will ensure that the Gallery app doesn’t show them. You can still view these images and videos within WhatsApp and through any apps that let you view hidden folders. But if you pass your phone to someone, you no longer need worry about them seeing the WhatsApp photos and videos through the Gallery app.
How to Stop Auto Downloading and Saving of Pictures, Videos and Other Media on WhatsApp for iPhone

You can turn off media auto-download on iPhone too via the Settings menu.
1. Open WhatsApp and tap the Settings button at the bottom-right, and tap on Data and Storage Usage
2. In this menu, you will see the Media Auto-Download option on top
3. For Photos, Audio, Videos, and Documents, select the Never option
Now only the files you choose to download manually will appear on your phone, and you can even choose to stop the photos and videos from appearing the phone’s Camera Roll. All you need to do is to go to Chats in the Settings menu, open the Save to Camera Roll menu, and turn it to off. This stops the pictures people are sending from showing up in the camera roll, and taking over your synced Photo Stream.

Bonus: How to Block a Contact on WhatsApp

Not saving images automatically has its advantages, but it also means that you will have to download each photo manually. If you end up downloading each and every image anyway, then it’s probably best to leave this feature active. Let us know if this tutorial helped you via the comments. For more such useful articles, visit our How to section.
June 18, 2017
Beware! This WhatsApp scam can hit you big!

Another day, another WhatsApp scam, this time one that tries to trick users into paying charges by saying their WhatsApp subscription has expired.

WhatsApp, of course, is free to use, and has been for some time, though the service used to charge a nominal amount as annual subscription fee when it had initially launched.

It seems the latest WhatsApp scam is playing on this distant memory of its users to try and extract some money.

How the WhatsApp subscription expired scam works

“People are being targeted by a message that reads ‘your subscription has expired, and to verify your account and purchase a lifetime subscription for just 0.99 GBP simply tap on this link’,” Independent.co.uk reported.

By encouraging people to click on the suspicious link, scam artists are tricking people into providing their payment details. People who have received the WhatsApp message should delete it immediately.

WhatsApp users should be on the lookout as scam artists are trying to charge users for using the instant messenger by faking a subscription fee.

Like we mentioned earlier, WhatsApp is free to download and use, but used to charge a small fee several years ago which no longer exists.

In case you have clicked on the link, safeguard yourself by running an antivirus software on your device to ensure you are not being infected with malware.

Users can also block the sender, so that they can no longer message or call through WhatsApp.

WhatsApp for Android recent update

WhatsApp recently updated its Android app to bring the pinned chats feature to everyone.

WhatsApp’s pinned chat feature lets users pin their favourite contacts to the top, which means you reach them quickly even if you haven’t been in touch via WhatsApp recently Read more>>

June 2, 2017