Visual effects also became available, adding visual filters to a user’s Starzbet video feed. In December 2023, WhatsApp’s “View Once” feature expanded to include voice messages. In August 2022, WhatsApp launched an integration with JioMart, available only to users in India.
Data Not Linked to You
The new privacy policy would not apply within the EU, as it is illegal under the GDPR. There were a series of incidents between 2017 and 2020, after which WhatsApp announced changes for Indian users of the platform that labels forwarded messages as such. In February 2015, WhatsApp implemented voice calling, which helped WhatsApp to attract a different segment of the user population. On November 14, 2016, WhatsApp added video calling for users using Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone devices. This ability (named multi-device support) began testing in July 2021 and rolled out to all users in April 2023. They link to and sync with WhatsApp actively running on a supported primary phone.
Third-party clients
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.
Want the best prices for your trip? Google can help.
- {
- Koum updated WhatsApp so that everyone in the user’s network would be notified when a user’s status changed.
- Higher usage was reported by frontline clinical staff to keep up with care needs, even though NHS trust policies do not permit their use.
- Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss of service, leading to anger across social media.
- It allows users to send text messages, voice messages, and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content.
- In November 2020, UPI payments via WhatsApp were initially restricted to 20 million users, and to 100 million users in April 2022, and became generally available to everyone in August 2022.
- As of May 2025, the service had 3 billion monthly active users, making it the most used messenger app.
|}{
|}
{
|}
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.
{
- In October 2020, WhatsApp rolled out a feature allowing users to mute both individuals and group chats forever.
- In 2016, WhatsApp was widely praised for the addition of end-to-end encryption and earned a 6 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s “Secure Messaging Scorecard”.
- In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China.
- In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client.
- By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over 30 billion messages every day.
- In August 2014, WhatsApp was the most popular messaging app in the world, with more than 600 million users.
{
|}
{
|}{
|}
|}
App support
- 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.
- WhatsApp has been officially supported for iPads and its iPadOS since May 27, 2025.
- Linked devices automatically log out after 14 days of inactivity on the primary phone.
- On May 18, 2017, the European Commission announced that it was fining Facebook €110 million for “providing misleading information about WhatsApp takeover” in 2014.
- Voice calls between two accounts were added to the app in March and April 2015.
- Sequoia Capital received an approximate 5,000% return on its initial investment.
{
|}
{
|}{
|}
This allows users to send messages between other messaging apps and WhatsApp while maintaining end-to-end encryption. The company also reported that Windows Phone operating systems would no longer be supported after December 31, 2019. WhatsApp was announced to be the 3rd most downloaded mobile phone app of the decade 2010–2019.
Messenger Plus for WhatsApp
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.
{
Brazil
|}
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.
{
See how people are using Google Maps to explore what’s around them, put their communities on the map, and help others
|}
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”.