Articles about WhatsApp

Continuing its expansions in to shopping and eCommerce, Meta has announced WhatsApp Flows. The new feature allows businesses to give customers the chance to do things like book tickets and order items from within a chat.

Flows can be customized by merchants to meet the specific needs of a business, creating workflow-like purchasing experiences for customers. Launching globally over the coming weeks, WhatsApp has been testing Flows with partners in Brazil and India.

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WhatsApp not only remains astoundingly popular, developers continue to refine existing features and add new capabilities at an astonishing rate. The latest beta version of the messaging app shows exciting signs that it may soon be possible to use WhatsApp to send and receive messages between other platforms.

This is an important -- and much-requested -- development because while WhatsApp has a colossal userbase, it is not yet ubiquitous. The fact remains that not everyone you may want to chat with is necessarily a WhatsApp user. In the future, this should not be a problem with the arrival of support for third-party chats.

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Security is vital for digital communication, and that's why the likes of Telegram and WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is so important and popular. Meta has long been keen to expand this security feature to its various other messaging platforms, and now the Facebook-owner has announced that it is implementing E2EE for all Messenger users.

The company points out that this is currently a test phase, so while more and more people will see immediate security enhancements, the rollout will not be complete until the end of the year.

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Although WhatsApp leads the way in many regards, there are plenty of areas in which it is lagging behind. The text formatting options in the message app are incredibly limited, for instance, but this is about to change.

The Meta-owned app is finally being given more formatting tools. The update means that WhatsApp users will no longer be limited to using bold, italics and strikethrough, and the need to find workarounds for the lack of common formatting options will soon be eliminated.

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There are many ways to use Meta's WhatsApp. From typing text-based messages through sending photos, to full-on video chats, there are options to suit just about every eventuality.

With voice messaging having proved incredibly popular, WhatsApp is now expanding its instant messaging options to include video. Just like its audio-based cousin, instant video message let you quickly record and share messages -- this time with video.

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Hey there, WhatsApp enthusiasts! Brace yourselves because the messaging world is about to get a whole lot more forgiving. That's right, WhatsApp has bestowed upon us a brand-new superpower—the ability to edit our sent messages. Cue the applause!

We've all been there. That moment when you hit the "send" button and immediately realize you've made a monumental typo or said something that sounded way better in your head. Well, fret no more, my dear WhatsAppers! With this marvelous new feature, you can now fix those blunders and regain control over your chats.

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WhatsApp has long been one of the more secure messaging apps with mass appeal, largely thanks to end-to-end encryption. This has been boosted further by features such as disappearing messages, and now Meta has added Chat Lock.

The company says that the feature "lets you protect your most intimate conversations behind one more layer of security"; what this means in practice is that message can be password or fingerprint protected. But there is more to Chat Lock than this.

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It is only very recently that WhatsApp beta users were given the ability to use the chat app across multiple phones. Now the company has announced that the feature is being rolled out globally to all users.

It has been possible for some time to sign into a single WhatsApp account on multiple device, but only one phone was permitted. This is something that, for numerous reasons, users have complained about -- and now it changes for everyone.

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WhatsApp is not alone in offering a disappearing message feature. It is an idea that's fairly self-explanatory: messages can be configured to automatically delete after a certain period of time -- something that's ideal for certain sensitive information.

But in a slightly confusing move, WhatsApp is introducing the option to stop disappearing messages from disappearing. The option is called Keep In Chat, and it is being described as "your new sender superpower".

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WhatsApp has announced a series of new privacy and security features to help protect against account hijacking and more.

The company says that it believes "your messages should be as private and secure as an in-person conversation", and it is with this in mind that it is launching Account Protect, Device Verification and Automatic Security Codes. Until now, we have only seen signs of these security features in beta versions of the chat app, but now an official announcement has been made promising an imminent rollout.

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If you have ever wanted to use WhatsApp on two or more phones, you will have been disappointed. While Meta has made it possible to be signed into a single WhatsApp account across multiple devices for a while, only one of them can be a phone; the others can be laptops or desktops running the app, or a device signed into the web version of WhatsApp.

But now this is changing. After a period of testing with a small number of users, WhatsApp is now rolling out Companion Mode more widely. This is a new feature that lets you sign into your account on multiple mobiles -- in fact you can use the same account on up to four phones if you want.

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While WhatsApp is most commonly used on mobile devices, growing numbers of users are adopting the desktop version of the app. Meta has just announced the release of a significantly improved version of the Windows app.

Speed is a key upgrade here, with load times being reduced, but there are also feature improvements. The latest version of WhatsApp for Windows now supports larger group video and audio calls.

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While WhatsApp is most commonly used on iOS and Android devices, there are plenty of reasons for wanting to use the messaging service on the desktop. There has been a web-based version of WhatsApp for quite some time, but for many people this is a poor substitute for a dedicated app.

Windows users have been able to use a desktop app for ages, and now the same is true for those who are more at home on a Mac. There has been a beta version of WhatsApp for a number of weeks, but only through TestFlight which has a strict limit on user numbers. But now it is possible to download the macOS version of the beta direct from WhatsApp,

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WhatsApp may be one of the most popular communications apps available, but it is not available everywhere. The very thing that makes it appealing to anyone concerned about privacy and security -- namely end-to-end encryption -- is the same thing that causes some countries to block access to it.

To help out people whose governments deny them access to WhatsApp, the app now offers proxy support. As well as being useful to anyone whose internet is censored or controlled, support for proxy connections can also prove helpful in case of internet shutdowns.

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While there are numerous ways to save links, text and other information you need to refer to later, sending an email to oneself is a method that many people rely on. But soon you could use WhatsApp to send yourself a message instead.

Currently in beta testing, the feature is one that will be welcomed by many users, particularly those who use WhatsApp across multiple devices. Here's what we know so far.

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