WhatsApp

Today we're taking a peek at what you need to know about the next update for WhatsApp for multiple platforms. This update adds new Animated Stickers, upgrades QR codes, and adds Dark Mode for WhatsApp web and desktop platforms. If you're working with video calls, you'll find the newly upgraded ability to include 8 people on a call. If you're one of the growing pack of people using a phone with KaiOS, you're in luck - a new feature, at last!

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This week the Facebook for Android app updated the way they show their brand - with all sorts of icons. You'll see Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. This is just the tip of the iceberg, really, as Facebook's ramped up acquisitions of companies over the last several years. Do you know if your favorite app and/or service is owned by Facebook? Let's take a look at the list of names that are actually owned and/or run by Facebook, from top to bottom.

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WhatsApp just fixed a system with which WhatsApp phone numbers were available to view and copy through a simple Google search. All WhatsApp needed to do was change a bit of code to de-index the lot of webpages created by their wa.me system - which they've done, this week. Users might never have known that their phone number was made public with this setup - but they might as well have suspected.

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A security researcher revealed an oddity in the way WhatsApp allows smartphone numbers to be listed on Google. It's not ALL phone numbers that've been used to gain access to WhatsApp, but those that've conversed with website operators. If you've never spoken to anyone on WhatsApp except for the people you know personally, you're probably not subject to this relative break in security on the platform.

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The next major update for WhatsApp will add some real encryption for chat history in iCloud. That's not to say that WhatsApp was necessarily unencrypted in any other way in the past, but this newest update adds a key component to the mix, specifically for iOS user. There's also a QR code element that'll soon - we can only cross our fingers and hope - be added to the system to make the sending of user details faster and simpler.

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In late April, Facebook introduced Messenger Rooms, a new video chatting feature that enables up to 50 people to participate in the same group call. The feature was introduced as demand for video messaging services has skyrocketed, joining Skype, Zoom, and other similar platforms. The latest WhatsApp beta adds an integration with this feature.

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Today the folks at WhatsApp - owned by Facebook - increased the number of people that can join a group video meeting to 8 users. WhatsApp calls this Group Video - and before now, the service was slightly more limited, with a max of 4 users at a time. Per WhatsApp officials, this boost is due in part to the drastic increase in use of WhatsApp over the past month, during our current global pandemic.

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A new report this week suggests that Facebook plans on utilizing WhatsApp to serve advertisements at some point in the future. That's the plan, according to inside sources, but the timeline for this update isn't entirely clear. The idea that Facebook would eventually integrate WhatsApp into their family of data-harvesting, ad-serving apps isn't a brand new idea. It's a good time to remind ourselves that, regardless of what's happened over the past few months and years, Facebook remains dedicated to monetizing all of their properties with user data turned into targeted advertisements.

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Popular messaging app WhatsApp has introduced a new batch of stickers that are mostly related to social distancing. The stickers obviously reference the ongoing quarantines around the world, which has driven many people to messaging apps and other social platforms as substitutes for real-life interactions. In addition to encouraging social distancing, the stickers include things related to hygiene and more.

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Many things about the COVID-19 coronavirus still remain a mystery even for doctors and scientists, let alone ordinary people. During such times of fear and uncertainty, there is no shortage of incomplete or downright misleading information being passed around disguised as truth. Today's messaging technologies have made it all too easy to spread such misinformation. WhatsApp, which was already in hot water for such cases, is now putting some hard limits when forwarding messages due to the COVID-19 situation.

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WhatsApp has become a hive of misinformation related to the novel coronavirus, the COVID-19 disease it causes, and the state of outbreaks around the world. The World Health Organization is combating this fake news by launching its own chatbot called WHO Health Alert to spread accurate, timely information. The chatbot will provide direct information on the latest case numbers, myths related to the disease, and more.

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If you're using WhatsApp for iOS or Android today, you can get an update that allows Dark Mode. This update changes the way that WhatsApp looks on all devices, switching dark tones for light tones, and light tones for dark. It makes better use of your display's power drain - to a tiny, yet significant degree. Dark Mode is a lot kinder to your eyes, too.

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