
The ultimate irony for him is that he has now accelerated precisely this process of making him obsolete. The report says that the new change has been found in a beta version of the application. It is expected to be introduced soon in a stable version of the app. Get expert social media advice delivered straight to your inbox. If you have the solid coding knowledge required to code your own Facebook chatbot, Facebook provides plenty of resources to get you started.
Using the Shops features on WhatsApp could also open up your preferences for targeted ads on other Facebook products such as Instagram. So clearly, business messaging, which WhatsApp has been gradually activating across many markets, will ultimately results in advertisements based on preferences you have shown to the business. Congress should push Zuckerberg to explain what apps compete with Facebook as a core identity provider, an omni-purpose social graph, or cross-platform messaging app. Without choice, users are at the mercy of Facebook’s policy and product examples. All of the congressional questions about data privacy and security don’t mean much to the public if they have no viable alternative to Facebook.
WhatsApp last month confirmed that it now has 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide which exchange almost 60 billion messages in a single this link day. The figures were revealed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during earnings call. Even WhatsApp Status feature now has 300 million daily active users. The company hasn’t updated the figures for the Indian market but WhatsApp was revealed to have over 200 million monthly active users in the country. And any apps rated older than child’s age will be blocked from installing, unless you unblock. The first is a potential and very permanent ban from the Whatsapp app.
Marlinspike had met a WhatsApp engineer by chance at his then-girlfriend’s family reunion, and used the connection to finagle a meeting with Acton, who immediately took to the idea. “It boiled down to a matter of principle,” Acton told WIRED in 2016. “If two people want a private conversation, electronic or not, they should be allowed to have it.”
This new encryption feature adds an additional layer of protection to chat backups stored either on Apple iCloud or Google Drive. On December 16, 2020, a claim that WhatsApp gave Google access to private messages was included in the anti-trust case against the latter. As the complaint is heavily redacted due to being an ongoing case, it doesn’t disclose whether this alleges tampering with the app’s end-to-end encryption or simply Google accessing user backups.
In many countries, it is now the default means of digital communication and social coordination, especially among younger people. Nowadays the app appears to be focused primarily on growth, while making money from selling the software and services, according to a blog post by the messaging service. The app now has more than one billion users worldwide according to figures released last year. Facebook acquired WhatsApp in February 2014 for $19 billion. It became one of a string of Facebook-owned apps that also includes major photo-sharing social networking app, Instagram. WhatsApp makes money through two sources — WhatsApp for Business API and Click to WhatsApp ads.