He also said that the app would not display any third-party ads, and that it would have new features such as the ability to communicate with businesses. At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-capital-backed company in history. Sequoia Capital received an approximate 5,000% return on its initial investment. Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss of service, leading to anger across social media. In 2016, WhatsApp was accused of copying features from a then-unreleased version of iMessage.

Supported Features

• Once again, the block was lifted following an appeal, after less than 24 hours.
• At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-capital-backed company in history.

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• This allows users to send messages between other messaging apps and WhatsApp while maintaining end-to-end encryption.

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• According to WhatsApp, the exploit “targeted at least 100 human-rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society” among a total of 1,400 users in 20 countries.

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• Rudd publicly called for police and intelligence agencies to be given access to WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging services to prevent future terror attacks.

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• In November 2023, WhatsApp added a “voice chat” feature for groups with more than 32 members.

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However, the WhatsApp privacy policy does not apply in the EU, since it violates the principles of GDPR. In August 2014, WhatsApp was the most popular messaging app in the world, with more than 600 million users. By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over 30 billion messages every day. A message that promises to allow access to their WhatsApp friends’ conversations, or their contact lists, has become the most popular hit against anyone who uses the application in Brazil. Rudd publicly called for police and intelligence agencies to be given access to WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging services to prevent future terror attacks. In September 2022, a critical security issue in WhatsApp’s Android video call feature was reported.

WhatsApp Web

Since then, linked devices support has expanded and more information is written in the Platform Support part of this article. In October 2020, WhatsApp rolled out a feature allowing users to mute both individuals and group chats forever. According to the company, messages could be edited within a 15-minute window after being sent. Edited messages were tagged as “edited” to inform recipients that the content had been modified. On February 24, 2017, WhatsApp launched a new Status feature similar to Snapchat and Facebook stories. The Cloud API enables businesses to integrate WhatsApp with other software, have a central WhatsApp account for multiple users and implement advanced automation.

Voice and video calling and notes

It became the world’s most popular messaging application in 2015, with 900 million users, and had more than 2 billion active users worldwide in February 2020. The ban was prompted by concerns of US authorities potentially accessing user data for such apps because of the CLOUD Act. The army recommended that all army personnel use Threema instead, as the service is based in Switzerland. This new encryption feature added an additional layer of protection to chat backups stored either on Apple iCloud or Google Drive. WhatsApp was initially criticized for its lack of encryption, sending information as plaintext.
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• In 2023, WhatsApp replaced the Electron-based apps with native versions for their respective platforms.
• The organization reported a massive drop-off in traffic for the blocked services, though the country’s government made no official statements about the block.

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• On October 14, 2021, WhatsApp rolled out end-to-end encryption for backups on Android and iOS.

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• In June 2023, a feature called WhatsApp Channels was launched which allows content creators, public figures and organizations to send newsletter-like broadcasts to large numbers of users.

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• WhatsApp was initially criticized for its lack of encryption, sending information as plaintext.

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• In June 2009, when the app had been downloaded by only a handful of Fishman’s Russian-speaking friends, Apple launched push technology, allowing users to be pinged even when not using the app.

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Security and privacy

End-to-end encryption was only fully implemented in April 2016 after a two-year process. According to a white paper that was released along with the announcement, WhatsApp messages are encrypted with the Signal Protocol. The company also announced plans to implement reactions, the ability for administrators to delete messages in groups and voice calls up to 32 participants.

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• However, when early versions of WhatsApp kept crashing, Koum considered giving up and looking for a new job.

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• Although Acton was working on another startup idea, he decided to join the company.

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• The idea started off as an app that would display statuses in a phone’s Contacts menu, showing if a person was at work or on a call.

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• In September 2022, a critical security issue in WhatsApp’s Android video call feature was reported.
• Since then, linked devices support has expanded and more information is written in the Platform Support part of this article.
• In 2016, WhatsApp was accused of copying features from a then-unreleased version of iMessage.

Security and encryption

This would give them some context for why they are important, and that will lead them to pay for more services like this – or so the hope goes. By February 2013, WhatsApp had about 200 million active users and 50 staff members. The service was created by WhatsApp Inc. of Mountain View, California, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion.
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Africa, Middle East, and India

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In April 2023, the app rolled out a feature that would allow account access across multiple phones, in a shift that would make it more like competitors. Now, the feature is also made available to Starzbet iOS users, allowing them to link up to four iPhones. The web client was not standalone, and required the user’s phone to stay on and connected to the internet.
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MAJOR UPDATE

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In July 2025, WhatsApp stopped developing the Windows UWP-based app due to poor support and deprecation of the UWP framework by Microsoft. In 2023, WhatsApp replaced the Electron-based apps with native versions for their respective platforms. As of 2025, the software requires at least Android version 5.0 or iOS version 15.1 respectively. WhatsApp also introduced chat filters, allowing users to sort their chats by All, Unread or Groups. This was implemented only on Samsung phones, with plans to expand to Android and iOS “soon”.
In April 2018, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum announced he would be leaving the company. Once again, the block was lifted following an appeal, after less than 24 hours. On May 9, 2014, the government of Iran announced that it had proposed to block the access to WhatsApp service to Iranian residents.