WhatsApp

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WhatsApp

Original
Brian Acton, Jan Koum
author(s)
Developer(s) WhatsApp Inc. (Facebook, Inc.)
Initial release January 2009; 11 years ago
Stable release(s) [±]
iOS 2.20.70 / June 29, 2020; 4 days ago[1]
Android 2.20.193.10 / June 25, 2020; 8 days ago[2]
Preview release(s) [±]
iOS (Beta) 2.20.31.4 / March 5, 2020; 3 months ago
Android (Beta)2.20.195.5 / July 3, 2020; 0 days ago[3]
Written in Erlang[4]
Android, iOS, KaiOS (there are
Operating Windows, macOS and web app
system clients that work only in presence
of a connected mobile app client)
137.5 MB (iOS)[5]
Size
22.88 MB (Android)[6]
Type Instant messaging, VoIP
License Proprietary software with EULA
("European Region", others)
Alexa rank 70 (January 2020)[7]
Website WhatsApp.com
WhatsApp Inc.

Type Subsidiary
Founded February 24, 2009; 11 years
 ago
 Jan Koum
Founders  Brian Acton

Mountain View, California

Headquarters ,
United States
Will Cathcart (Head of
Key people
WhatsApp)[8][9]
Number of
50
employees
Parent Facebook, Inc.
Website WhatsApp.com
Footnotes / references
[10][11]

WhatsApp Timeline
Feb
Jan Koum incorporates WhatsApp in California.
24, [12]
2009
Brian Acton persuades five ex-Yahoo! friends
Oct
to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and is
2009
granted co-founder status.[12]
Aug WhatsApp 2.0 is released on the App Store for
2009 the iPhone.[13]
Dec WhatsApp for the iPhone is updated to send
2009 photos.[12]
Aug
WhatsApp support for Android OS is added.[14]
2010
Jan WeChat, a messenger app, is founded.[15] It
21, eventually starts to compete with WhatsApp
2011 and becomes very popular in China.
In Series A round, WhatsApp founders agree to
Apr take $7 million from Sequoia Capital on top of
2011 their $250,000 seed funding, after months of
negotiation with Sequoia partner Jim Goetz.[12]
May SnapChat, a competing photo messaging app, is
2011 founded.[16]
An unknown hacker publishes a website that
Jan 6,makes it possible to change the status of an
2012 arbitrary WhatsApp user, as long as the phone
number was known.[17][18]
Aug The WhatsApp support staff announce that
2012 messages were encrypted in the "latest version"
 of the WhatsApp software for iOS and Android
(but not BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and
Symbian), without specifying the cryptographic
method.[19]
Feb WhatsApp's user base swells to about 200
2013 million active users and its staff to 50.[12]
Jul Sequoia invests another $50 million in Series B
2013 round, valuing WhatsApp at $1.5 billion.[20]
Jul
WhatsApp goes free, with an annual
16,
subscription fee of $1 after the first year.[21][22]
2013
Aug Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging
2013 service, launches.[23]
Aug
WhatsApp introduces voice messaging.[24]
2013
Facebook, Inc. announces its acquisition of
WhatsApp for US$19 billion, its largest
Feb
acquisition to date.[25] Facebook pays $4 billion
19,
in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and an
2014
additional $3 billion in restricted stock units
granted to WhatsApp's founders.[26]
Someone discovers a vulnerability in WhatsApp
Mar encryption on the Android application that
2014 allows another app to access and read all of a
user’s chat conversations within it.[27]
WhatsApp introduces a feature named Read
Receipts, which alerts senders when their
Nov messages are read by recipients. Within a week,
2014 WhatsApp introduces an update allowing users
to disable this feature so that message recipients
do not send acknowledgements.[28]
WhatsApp launches WhatsApp Web, a web
Jan
client which can be used through a web browser
21,
by syncing with the mobile device's connection.
2015 [29]
WhatsApp announces its policy on cracking
Jan down on 3rd-party clients, including
21, WhatsApp+.[30] Users would not be able to use
2015 WhatsApp’s services at all until the third-party
apps are uninstalled.[31]
WhatsApp is briefly shut down in Brazil after it
Dec refuses to place wiretaps on certain WhatsApp
2015 accounts.[32] It is shut down in Brazil again on
May 2016 and in July 2016.[33]
Jan Jan Koum announces that WhatsApp will no
18, longer charge its users a $1 annual subscription
 fee.[34][35] There is still no clear plan for
2016
monetizing WhatsApp.[36]
Diego Dzodan, a Facebook executive, is
arrested by Brazilian federal police after
Mar
Facebook fails to turn over information from his
2016
WhatsApp messaging account into a judge's
request for a drug trafficking investigation.[37]
Mar WhatsApp introduces its document-sharing
2, feature, initially allowing users to share PDF
2016 files with their contacts.[38]
WhatsApp and Open Whisper Systems
Apr announce that they finish adding end-to-end
5, encryption to "every form of communication"
2016 on WhatsApp, and that users could now verify
each other's keys.[39][40][41]
May
WhatsApp is introduced for both Windows and
10,
Mac operating systems.[42]
2016
WhatsApp started external testing of an
Sep 5,enterprise platform which enables companies to
2017 provide customer service to users at scale.[43]
Airline KLM launches such a service.[44]
 v
 t
 e

WhatsApp Messenger, or simply WhatsApp, is an American freeware, cross-platform

messaging and Voice over IP (VoIP) service owned by Facebook, Inc.[45] It allows users to send
text messages and voice messages,[46] make voice and video calls, and share images, documents,
user locations, and other media.[47][48] WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices but is
also accessible from desktop computers, as long as the user's mobile device remains connected to
the Internet while they use the desktop app.[49] The service requires users to provide a standard
cellular mobile number for registering with the service.[50] In January 2018, WhatsApp released a
standalone business app targeted at small business owners, called WhatsApp Business, to allow
companies to communicate with customers who use the standard WhatsApp client.[51][52]

The client application was created by WhatsApp Inc. of Mountain View, California, which was
acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion.[53][54] It became the
world's most popular messaging application by 2015,[55][56] and has over 2 billion users worldwide
as of February 2020.[57] It has become the primary means of electronic communication in
multiple countries and locations, including Latin America, the Indian subcontinent, and large
parts of Europe and Africa.[55]
Contents
 1 History
o 1.1 2009–2014
o 1.2 Facebook subsidiary (2014–present)
o 1.3 Recent (2016–present)
 1.3.1 2019 Lawsuit
 2 SMB and Enterprise platforms
 3 Platform support
o 3.1 WhatsApp Web
o 3.2 Microsoft Windows and Mac
o 3.3 Apple iPad
 4 Technical
o 4.1 End-to-end encryption
o 4.2 WhatsApp Payments
o 4.3 WhatsApp Cryptocurrency
 5 Reception and criticism
o 5.1 Hoaxes and fake news
 5.1.1 Mob murders in India
 5.1.2 2018 elections in Brazil
o 5.2 Security and privacy
o 5.3 Terrorism
o 5.4 Scams and malware
o 5.5 Bans
 5.5.1 China
 5.5.2 Iran
 5.5.3 Turkey
 5.5.4 Brazil
 5.5.5 Sri Lanka
 5.5.6 Uganda
 5.5.7 United Arab Emirates (UAE)
 6 User statistics
o 6.1 Specific markets
o 6.2 Competition
 7 See also
 8 References
 9 External links

History
Further information: Timeline of WhatsApp

2009–2014
WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, former employees of Yahoo!.
After leaving Yahoo! in September 2007, they took some time off in South America.[12] At one
point, they applied for jobs at Facebook but were rejected.[12]

In January 2009, after purchasing an iPhone and realizing the potential of the app industry on the
App Store, Koum and Acton began visiting Koum's friend Alex Fishman in West San Jose to
discuss a new type of messaging app that would "show statuses next to individual names of the
people".[citation needed] They realized that to take the idea further, they would need an iPhone
developer. Fishman visited RentACoder.com, found Russian developer Igor Solomennikov, and
introduced him to Koum.

Koum named the app WhatsApp to sound like "what's up". On February 24, 2009, he
incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California. However, when early versions of WhatsApp kept
crashing, Koum considered giving up and looking for a new job. Acton encouraged him to wait
for a "few more months".[58]

In June 2009, Apple launched push notifications, allowing users to be pinged when they were not
using an app. Koum changed WhatsApp so that when a user's status is changed, everyone in the
user's network would be notified.[12] WhatsApp 2.0 was released with a messaging component
and the number of active users suddenly increased to 250,000. Although Acton was working on
another startup idea, he decided to join the company.[12] In October 2009, Acton persuaded five
former friends at Yahoo! to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and Acton became a co-founder
and was given a stake. He officially joined WhatsApp on November 1.[12] After months at beta
stage, the application launched in November 2009, exclusively on the App Store for the iPhone.
Koum then hired a friend in Los Angeles, Chris Peiffer, to develop a BlackBerry version, which
arrived two months later.[12]

To cover the primary cost of sending verification texts to users, WhatsApp was changed from a
free service to a paid one. In December 2009, the ability to send photos was added to the iPhone
version. By early 2011, WhatsApp was one of the top 20 apps at Apple's U.S. App Store.[12]

In April 2011, Sequoia Capital invested about $8 million for more than 15% of the company,
after months of negotiation with Sequoia partner Jim Goetz.[59][60][61]

By February 2013, WhatsApp had about 200 million active users and 50 staff members. Sequoia
invested another $50 million, and WhatsApp was valued at $1.5 billion.[12]

In a December 2013 blog post, WhatsApp claimed that 400 million active users used the service
each month.[62]

Facebook subsidiary (2014–present)

On February 19, 2014, months after a venture capital financing round at a $1.5 billion valuation,
[63]
Facebook, Inc. announced it was acquiring WhatsApp for US$19 billion, its largest
acquisition to date.[54] At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-backed company in
history.[53] Sequoia Capital received an approximate 5000% return on its initial investment.[64]
Facebook, which was advised by Allen & Co, paid $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook
shares, and (advised by Morgan Stanley) an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units granted
to WhatsApp's founders Koum and Acton.[65] Employee stock was scheduled to vest over four
years subsequent to closing.[54] Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss
of service, leading to anger across social media.[66]

The acquisition caused a considerable number of users to try and/or move to other message
services. Telegram claimed that it acquired 8 million new users;[67] and Line, 2 million.[68]

At a keynote presentation at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2014,

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp was closely
related to the Internet.org vision.[69][70] A TechCrunch article said this about Zuckerberg's vision:

The idea, he said, is to develop a group of basic internet services that would be free of charge to
use – 'a 911 for the internet.' These could be a social networking service like Facebook, a
messaging service, maybe search and other things like weather. Providing a bundle of these free
of charge to users will work like a gateway drug of sorts – users who may be able to afford data
services and phones these days just don't see the point of why they would pay for those data
services. This would give them some context for why they are important, and that will lead them
to paying for more services like this – or so the hope goes.[69]

Just three days after announcing the Facebook purchase, Koum said they were working to
introduce voice calls. He also said that new mobile phones would be sold in Germany with the
WhatsApp brand and that their ultimate goal was to be on all smartphones.[71]

In August 2014, WhatsApp was the most globally popular messaging app, with more than
600 million users.[72] By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over
30 billion messages every day.[73] In April 2015, Forbes predicted that between 2012 and 2018,
the telecommunications industry would lose $386 billion because of OTT services like
WhatsApp and Skype.[74] That month, WhatsApp had over 800 million users.[75][76] By September
2015, it had grown to 900 million;[77] and by February 2016, one billion.[78]

Voice calls between two accounts were added to the app in March and April 2015.[79]

On November 30, 2015, the Android WhatsApp client made links to another message service,
Telegram, unclickable and uncopyable.[80][81][82] Multiple sources confirmed that it was
intentional, not a bug,[82] and that it had been implemented when the Android source code that
recognized Telegram URLs had been identified.[82] (The word "telegram" appeared in
WhatsApp's code.[82]) Some considered it an anti-competitive measure,[80][81][82] but WhatsApp
offered no explanation.

Recent (2016–present)

On January 18, 2016, WhatsApp's co-founder Jan Koum announced that it would no longer
charge users a $1 annual subscription fee, in an effort to remove a barrier faced by users without
credit cards.[83][84] 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.[78][85]

By June 2016, the company's blog reported more than 100 million voice calls per day were being
placed on WhatsApp.[86]

On November 10, 2016, WhatsApp launched a beta version of two-step verification for Android
users, which allowed them to use their email addresses for further protection.[87] Also in
November 2016, Facebook ceased collecting WhatsApp data for advertising in Europe.[88] Later
that month, video calls between two accounts were introduced.[89]

On February 24, 2017, (WhatsApp's 8th birthday), WhatsApp launched a new Status feature
similar to Snapchat and Facebook stories.[90]

On May 18, 2017, it was reported that the European Commission would fine Facebook
€110 million for "misleading" it during the 2014 takeover of WhatsApp. The Commission
alleged that in 2014 when Facebook acquired the messaging app, it "falsely claimed it was
technically impossible to automatically combine user information from Facebook and
WhatsApp". However, in the summer of 2016, WhatsApp had begun sharing user information
with its parent company, allowing information such as phone numbers to be used for targeted
Facebook advertisements. Facebook acknowledged the breach, but said the errors in their 2014
filings were "not intentional".[88]

In September 2017, WhatsApp's co-founder Brian Acton left the company to start a nonprofit
group,[91] later revealed as the Signal Foundation, which now develops the WhatsApp competitor
Signal.[92] WhatsApp also announced a forthcoming business platform to enable companies to
provide customer service at scale,[93] and airlines KLM and Aeroméxico announced their
participation in the testing.[94][95][96][97] Both airlines previously launched customer services on the
Facebook Messenger platform.

In January 2018, WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Business for small business use.[98]

In April 2018, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum announced he would be leaving the
company.[99] Facebook later announced that Koum's replacement would be Chris Daniels.[10]

Later in September 2018, WhatsApp introduced group audio and video call features.[100][101] In
October, the "Swipe to Reply" option was added to the Android beta version, 16 months after it
was introduced for iOS.[102]

On October 25, 2018, WhatsApp announced support for Stickers. But unlike other platforms
WhatsApp requires third party apps to add Stickers to WhatsApp.[103]

On November 25, 2019, WhatsApp announced an investment of $250,000 into the startup
ecosystem through a partnership with Startup India, where it will provide 500 startups with
Facebook ad credits of $500 each.[104]
In December 2019, WhatsApp announced that a new update would lock out any Apple users who
haven't updated to iOS 9 or higher and Samsung, Huawei, Sony and Google users who haven't
updated to version 4.0 by February 1, 2020. The company also reported that Windows Phone
operating systems would no longer be supported after December 31, 2019.[105] WhatsApp was
announced to be the 3rd most downloaded mobile app of the decade from 2010 to 2019.[106]

In early 2020, WhatsApp launched its "dark mode" for iPhone and Android devices – a new
design consisting of a darker palette.[107] In March, WhatsApp partnered with the World Health
Organization and UNICEF to provide messaging hotlines for people to get information on the
2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic.[108] That same month, WhatsApp began testing a feature to
help users find out more information and context about information they receive.[109]

2019 Lawsuit

Main article: WhatsApp snooping scandal

In May 2019, WhatsApp was attacked by hackers who installed spyware on a number of victims'
smartphones.[110] The hack, allegedly developed by Israeli surveillance technology firm NSO
Group, injected malware onto WhatsApp users’ phones via a remote-exploit bug in the app's
Voice over IP calling functions. A Wired report noted the attack was able to inject malware via
calls to the targeted phone, even if the user did not answer the call.[111] On October 29, WhatsApp
filed a lawsuit against NSO Group in a San Francisco court, claiming that the alleged cyberattack
violated US laws including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).[112] 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.[113][114][9]

SMB and Enterprise platforms

Until 2017, WhatsApp was for individual use between two smartphones. This enabled businesses
to communicate with customers,[115] but not at scale (e.g. in a contact center environment). In
September 2017 WhatsApp confirmed rumors[116][117] that they were building and testing two new
tools for businesses:[97]

 A free WhatsApp Business app for small companies[118]

 An Enterprise Solution for bigger companies with global customer bases, such as
airlines, e-commerce retailers and banks, who would be able to offer customer service
and conversational commerce (e-commerce) via WhatsApp chat, using live agents or
chatbots. (As far back as 2015, companies like Meteordesk[119] had provided unofficial
solutions for enterprises to attend to large numbers of users, but these were shut down by
WhatsApp.)

Platform support
After months at beta stage, the official first release of WhatsApp launched in November 2009,
exclusively at the App Store for iPhone. In January 2010, support for BlackBerry smartphones
was added; and subsequently for Symbian OS in May 2010, and for Android OS in August 2010.
In August 2011, a beta for Nokia's non-smartphone OS Series 40 was added. A month later,
support for Windows Phone was added, followed by BlackBerry 10 in March 2013.[120] In April
2015, support for Samsung's Tizen OS was added.[121] Unofficial ports, Wazapp and Yappari,
have also been released for the MeeGo-based Nokia N9[122] and the Maemo-based Nokia N900,
respectively.[123]

The oldest device capable of running WhatsApp was the Symbian-based Nokia N95 released in
March 2007. (As of June 2017, WhatsApp is no longer compatible with it.)

In August 2014, WhatsApp released an Android update, adding support for Android Wear
smartwatches.[124]

In 2014, an unofficial open source plug-in, whatsapp-purple, was released for Pidgin,
implementing its XMPP and making it possible to use WhatsApp on PCs running Microsoft
Windows and Linux.[125][third-party source needed] WhatsApp responded by blocking phone numbers that
used the plug-in.[citation needed]

On January 21, 2015, WhatsApp launched WhatsApp Web, a browser-based web client that
could be used by syncing with a mobile device's connection.[126]

On February 26, 2016, WhatsApp announced they would cease support for BlackBerry
(including BlackBerry 10), Series 40, and Symbian S60, as well as older versions of Android
(2.2), Windows Phone (7.0), and iOS (6), by the end of 2016.[127] BlackBerry, Series 40, and
Symbian support was then extended to June 30, 2017.[128] In June 2017, support for BlackBerry
and Series 40 was once again extended until the end of 2017, while Symbian was dropped.[129]

Support for BlackBerry and older (version 8.0) Windows Phone and older (version 6) iOS
devices was dropped on January 1, 2018, but was extended to December 2018 for Nokia Series
40.[130] In July 2018, it was announced that WhatsApp would soon be available for KaiOS feature
phones.[131][132]

In October 2019, WhatsApp officially launched a new fingerprint app-locking feature for
Android users.[citation needed]

WhatsApp Web

WhatsApp was officially made available for PCs through a web client, under the name
WhatsApp Web, in late January 2015 through an announcement made by Koum on his
Facebook page: "Our web client is simply an extension of your phone: the web browser mirrors
conversations and messages from your mobile device—this means all of your messages still live
on your phone". The WhatsApp user's handset must still be connected to the Internet for the
browser application to function. All major desktop browsers are supported except for Internet
Explorer. WhatsApp Web's user interface is based on the default Android one and can be
accessed through web.whatsapp.com. Access is granted after the users scan their personal QR
code through their mobile WhatsApp application.
As of January 21, 2015, the desktop version was only available to Android, BlackBerry, and
Windows Phone users. Later on, it also added support for iOS, Nokia Series 40, and Nokia S60
(Symbian).[133][134]

An unofficial derivative called WhatsAppTime has been developed, which is a standard Win32
application for PCs and supports notifications through the Windows notification area.[135]

There are similar solutions for macOS, such as the open-source ChitChat.[136][137][138]

Microsoft Windows and Mac

On May 10, 2016, the messaging service was introduced for both Microsoft Windows and
macOS operating systems. WhatsApp currently does not allow audio or video calling from
desktop operating systems. Similar to the WhatsApp Web format, the app, which will be synced
with a user's mobile device, is available for download on the website. It supports OS versions of
Windows 8 and OS X 10.10 and higher.[139][140][141]

Apple iPad

A story circulated in 2019 that iPad support was coming.[142]

However, as of March 2020, WhatsApp does not run on the Apple iPad. From the WhatsApp
iOS page (accessed March 2020): "WhatsApp is a telephony app, so iPod and iPad are not
supported devices."[143]

iPad users searching for WhatsApp are shown numerous third-party clients. Several top results
have names and logos resembling WhatsApp itself, and some users do not realize they are using
a third-party client. Unfortunately, using third-party clients runs the risk to the user of their
phone number being permanently banned.[144]

Technical
WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence
Protocol (XMPP).[145] Upon installation, it creates a user account using one's phone number as the
username (Jabber ID: [phone number]@s.whatsapp.net).

WhatsApp software automatically compares all the phone numbers from the device's address
book with its central database of WhatsApp users to automatically add contacts to the user's
WhatsApp contact list. Previously the Android and Nokia Series 40 versions used an MD5-
hashed, reversed-version of the phone's IMEI as password,[146] while the iOS version used the
phone's Wi-Fi MAC address instead of IMEI.[147][148] A 2012 update now generates a random
password on the server side.[149]

Some Dual SIM devices may not be compatible with WhatsApp, though there are some
workarounds for this.[150]
In February 2015, WhatsApp introduced a voice calling feature; this helped WhatsApp to attract
a completely different segment of the user population.[151][152] WhatsApp's voice codec is Opus,
[153][154][155]
which uses the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) and linear predictive
coding (LPC) audio compression algorithms.[156] WhatsApp uses Opus at 8–16 kHz sampling
rates.[153][155] On November 14, 2016, Whatsapp added a video calling feature for users across
Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone devices.[157][158]

In November 2017, Whatsapp released a new feature that would let its users delete messages sent
by mistake within a time frame of 7 minutes.[159]

Multimedia messages are sent by uploading the image, audio or video to be sent to an HTTP
server and then sending a link to the content along with its Base64 encoded thumbnail (if
applicable).[160]

WhatsApp follows a "store and forward" mechanism for exchanging messages between two
users. When a user sends a message, it first travels to the WhatsApp server where it is stored.
Then the server repeatedly requests the receiver to acknowledge receipt of the message. As soon
as the message is acknowledged, the server drops the message; it is no longer available in the
database of the server. The WhatsApp server keeps the message only for 30 days in its database
when it is not delivered (when the receiver is not active on WhatsApp for 30 days).[161][self-published
source?]

End-to-end encryption

On November 18, 2014, Open Whisper Systems announced a partnership with WhatsApp to
provide end-to-end encryption by incorporating the encryption protocol used in Signal into each
WhatsApp client platform.[162] Open Whisper Systems said that they had already incorporated the
protocol into the latest WhatsApp client for Android, and that support for other clients,
group/media messages, and key verification would be coming soon after.[163] WhatsApp
confirmed the partnership to reporters, but there was no announcement or documentation about
the encryption feature on the official website, and further requests for comment were declined.
[164]
In April 2015, German magazine Heise Security used ARP spoofing to confirm that the
protocol had been implemented for Android-to-Android messages, and that WhatsApp messages
from or to iPhones running iOS were still not end-to-end encrypted.[165] They expressed the
concern that regular WhatsApp users still could not tell the difference between end-to-end
encrypted messages and regular messages.[165]

On April 5, 2016, WhatsApp and Open Whisper Systems announced that they had finished
adding end-to-end encryption to "every form of communication" on WhatsApp, and that users
could now verify each other's keys.[39][166] Users were also given the option to enable a trust on
first use mechanism in order to be notified if a correspondent's key changes.[167] According to a
white paper that was released along with the announcement, WhatsApp messages are encrypted
with the Signal Protocol.[168] WhatsApp calls are encrypted with SRTP, and all client-server
communications are "layered within a separate encrypted channel".[168] The Signal Protocol
library used by WhatsApp is open-source and published under the GPLv3 license.[168][169]
Cade Metz, writing in Wired, said, "WhatsApp, more than any company before it, has taken
encryption to the masses."[45]

WhatsApp Payments

WhatsApp Payments is a peer-to-peer money transfer feature that is currently only available in
India. WhatsApp has received permission from the National Payments Corporation of India
(NPCI) to enter into partnership with multiple banks in July 2017[170] to allow users to make in-
app payments and money transfers using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).[171] UPI enables
account-to-account transfers from a mobile app without having any details of the beneficiary's
bank.[172] This feature is being pilot tested with over a million users since April 2019, however
there has not been any update on the final roll out.[173]

WhatsApp Cryptocurrency

See also: Libra (cryptocurrency)

On February 28, 2019, The New York Times reported that Facebook was “hoping to succeed
where Bitcoin failed” by developing an in-house cryptocurrency that would be incorporated into
WhatsApp. The project reportedly involves over 50 engineers under the direction of former
PayPal president David Marcus. This 'Facebook coin' will reportedly be a stablecoin pegged to
the value of a basket of different foreign currencies.[174]

Reception and criticism

Hoaxes and fake news

Mob murders in India

In July 2018, WhatsApp encouraged people to report fraudulent or inciting messages after lynch
mobs in India murdered innocent people because of malicious WhatsApp messages falsely
accusing the victims of intending to abduct children.[175]

2018 elections in Brazil

In an investigation on the use of social media in politics, it was found that WhatsApp was being
abused for the spread of fake news in the 2018 presidential elections in Brazil.[176] Furthermore, it
has been reported that US$3 million has been spent in illegal off-the-books contributions related
to this practice.[177]

Researchers and journalists have called on WhatsApp parent company, Facebook, to adopt
measures similar to those adopted in India and restrict the spread of hoaxes and fake news.[176]

Security and privacy

Main article: Reception and criticism of WhatsApp security and privacy features

WhatsApp was initially criticized for its lack of encryption, sending information as plaintext.[178]
Encryption was first added in May 2012.[179][180][181]

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".[182]
WhatsApp was criticized by security researchers and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for
using backups that are not covered by end-to-end encryption and allow messages to be accessed
by third-parties.[183][184]

In May 2019, a security vulnerability in WhatsApp was found and fixed that allowed a remote
person to install spyware by making a call which did not need to be answered.[185][186]

In September 2019, WhatsApp was criticized for its implementation of a 'delete for everyone'
feature. iOS users can elect to save media to their camera roll automatically. When a user deletes
media for everyone, WhatsApp does not delete images saved in the iOS camera roll and so those
users are able to keep the images. WhatsApp released a statement saying that "the feature is
working properly," and that images stored in the camera roll cannot be deleted due to Apple's
security layers.[187]

In November 2019, WhatsApp released a new privacy feature that let users decide who adds
them to the group.[188]

On December 17, 2019, WhatsApp fixed a security flaw that allowed cyber attackers to
repeatedly crash the messaging application for all members of group chat, which could only be
fixed by forcing the complete uninstall and reinstall of the app.[189] The bug was discovered in
August 2019 and reported to WhatsApp. It was fixed in version 2.19.246 onwards.[190][191]

For security purposes, since February 1, 2020, WhatsApp has been made unavailable on
smartphones using legacy operating systems like Android 2.3.7 or older and iPhone iOS 8 or
older that are no longer updated by their providers.[192]

In April 2020, the NSO Group held its governmental clients accountable for the allegation of
human rights abuses by WhatsApp. In its revelation via documents received from court, the
group said that the mobile application periled to disregard its clients’ “national security and
foreign policy concerns”. However, the company did not reveal names of the end users, which
according to a research by Citizen Lab include, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Morocco,
Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.[193]

NHS

In 2018, it was reported that around 500,000 National Health Service (NHS) staff used
WhatsApp and other instant messaging systems at work and around 29,000 had faced
disciplinary action for doing so. Higher usage was reported by frontline clinical staff to keep up
with care needs, even though NHS trust policies do not permit their use.[194]
Mods and Fake versions

In March 2019, WhatsApp released a guide for users that had installed unofficial modified
versions of WhatsApp and warned against data loss in case users persisted in using the same as it
considered banning such users.[195]

NSO Group

In October 2019, WhatsApp launched an unprecedented lawsuit against an Israeli surveillance

firm NSO Group, accusing that it was behind the highly sophisticated cyber attacks on over 100
human rights activists, journalists, lawyers, and academics. WhatsApp also claimed that the firm
violated American law in an “unmistakable pattern of abuse”.[196]

Jeff Bezos Phone Hack

In January 2020, a digital forensic analysis revealed that the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
received an encrypted message on WhatsApp from the official account of Saudi Arabia’s Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The message reportedly contained a malicious file, using which
Bezos’ phone was hacked. The United Nations’ special rapporteur David Kaye and Agnes
Callamard later confirmed that Jeff Bezos’ phone was hacked through WhatsApp, as he was one
of the targets of Saudi's hit list of individuals close to The Washington Post journalist Jamal
Khashoggi.[197]

Terrorism

In December 2015, it was reported that Islamic State terrorists had been using WhatsApp to plot
the November 2015 Paris attacks.[198] ISIS also uses WhatsApp to traffic sex slaves.[199]

In March 2017, U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said encryption capabilities of messaging
tools like WhatsApp are unacceptable, as news reported that Khalid Masood used the application
several minutes before perpetrating the 2017 Westminster attack. Rudd publicly called for police
and intelligence agencies to be given access to WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging
services to prevent future terror attacks.[200]

In April 2017, the perpetrator of the Stockholm attack reportedly used WhatsApp to exchange
messages with an ISIS supporter shortly before and after the 2017 Stockholm attack. The
messages involved discussing how to make an explosive device and a confession of the
perpetration after the attack.[201]

Scams and malware

It has been asserted that WhatsApp is plagued by scams that invite hackers to spread malicious
viruses or malware.[202][203] In May 2016, some WhatsApp users were reported to have been
tricked into downloading a third-party application called WhatsApp Gold, which was part of a
scam that infected the users' phones with malware.[204] 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. Since December 2016, more than 1.5 million
people have clicked and lost money.[205]

Another application called GB Whatsapp is considered malicious by cybersecurity firm

Symantec because it usually performs some unauthorized operations on end-user devices.[206]

Bans

China

WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, whose main social media service has been blocked in China
since 2009.[207] In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the
WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China.[208][209]

According to Time, Sarsenbek Akaruli, 45, a veterinarian and trader from Ili, Xinjiang, was
arrested in Xinjiang on November 2, 2017. As of November 2019, he is still in a detention camp.
According to his wife Gulnur Kosdaulet, Akaruli was put in the camp after police found the
banned messaging app WhatsApp on his cell phone. Kosdaulet, a citizen of neighboring
Kazakhstan, has traveled to Xinjiang on four occasions to search for her husband but could not
get help from friends in the Communist Party of China. Kosdaulet said of her friends, "Nobody
wanted to risk being recorded on security cameras talking to me in case they ended up in the
camps themselves."[210]

Iran

On May 9, 2014, the government of Iran announced that it had proposed to block the access to
WhatsApp service to Iranian residents. "The reason for this is the assumption of WhatsApp by
the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American Zionist," said Abdolsamad
Khorramabadi, head of the country's Committee on Internet Crimes. Subsequently, Iranian
president Hassan Rouhani issued an order to the Ministry of ICT to stop filtering WhatsApp.[211]
[212]

Turkey

Turkey temporarily banned WhatsApp in 2016, following the assassination of the Russian
ambassador to Turkey.[213]

Brazil

On March 1, 2016, Diego Dzodan, Facebook's vice-president for Latin America was arrested in
Brazil for not cooperating with an investigation in which WhatsApp conversations were
requested.[214] On March 2, 2016, at dawn the next day, Dzodan was released because the Court
of Appeal held that the arrest was disproportionate and unreasonable.[215]
On May 2, 2016, mobile providers in Brazil were ordered to block WhatsApp for 72 hours for
the service's second failure to cooperate with criminal court orders.[216][217] Once again, the block
was lifted following an appeal, after nearly 24 hours.[218]

Brazil’s Central Bank issued an order to Visa and Mastercard on June 23, 2020 to stop working
with WhatsApp on its new electronic payment system. A statement from the Bank asserted the
decision to block the Facebook-owned company’s latest offering was taken in order to “preserve
an adequate competitive environment” in the mobile payments space and to ensure “functioning
of a payment system that’s interchangeable, fast, secure, transparent, open and cheap.”[219][220]

Sri Lanka

WhatsApp, one of the most activated messaging apps along with other social media networks
such as Facebook and Instagram were temporarily blocked, banned and had been unavailable for
about two days (March 7–8, 2018) in certain parts of the country to eradicate communal
violence, especially the anti-Muslim riots.[221] This was probably the first such instance where
social media platforms had been banned in Sri Lanka. The ban was finally lifted on March 14,
2018 around midnight time in Sri Lanka.[222]

Uganda

The government of Uganda banned WhatsApp and Facebook, along with other social media
platforms, to enforce a tax on the use of social media.[223] Users are to be charged 200 shilling per
day to access these services according to the new law set by parliament.[224]

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

The United Arab Emirates banned WhatsApp video chat and VoIP call applications[225][226] in as
early as 2013[227] due to what is often reported as an effort to protect the commercial interests of
their home grown nationally owned telecom providers (du and Etisalat).[227] Their app ToTok has
received press suggesting it is able to spy on users.[226][228]

User statistics
WhatsApp handled ten billion messages per day in August 2012,[229] growing from two billion in
April 2012,[230] and one billion the previous October.[231] On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced
that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages.[232] According to
the Financial Times, WhatsApp "has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to
international calling on landlines".[233]

As of April 22, 2014, WhatsApp had over 500 million monthly active users, 700 million photos
and 100 million videos were being shared daily, and the messaging system was handling more
than 10 billion messages each day.[234][235]
On August 24, 2014, Koum announced on his Twitter account that WhatsApp had over
600 million active users worldwide. At that point WhatsApp was adding about 25 million new
users every month, or 833,000 active users per day.[72][236]

In May 2017, it was reported that WhatsApp users spend over 340 million minutes on video calls
each day on the app. This is the equivalent of roughly 646 years of video calls per day.[237]

As of February 2017, WhatsApp had over 1.2 billion users globally,[238] reaching 1.5 billion
monthly active users by the end of 2017.[239]

In January 2020, WhatsApp registers over 5 billion installs on Google Play Store making it only
the second non-Google app to achieve this milestone.[240]

As of February 2020, WhatsApp had over 2 billion users globally.[241]

Specific markets

India is by far WhatsApp's largest market in terms of total number of users. In May 2014,
WhatsApp crossed 50 million monthly active users in India, which is also its largest country by
the number of monthly active users,[242] then 70 million in October 2014, making users in India
10% of WhatsApp's total user base.[243] In February 2017, WhatsApp reached 200 million
monthly active users in India.[244]

Israel is one of WhatsApp's strongest markets in terms of ubiquitous usage. According to Globes,
already by 2013 the application was installed on 92% of all smartphones, with 86% of users
reporting daily use.[245] WhatsApp's group chat feature is reportedly used by many Israeli families
to stay in contact with each other.[246]

Competition

WhatsApp competes with a number of messaging services. Those, as of 2019, were services like
iMessage (estimated 1.3 billion active users[247]), WeChat (1 billion active users[248]), Viber
(260 million active users[249]), Telegram (200 million users[250]) and LINE (187 million active
users[251]). Telegram in particular was reported to get registration spikes during WhatsApp
outages and controversies.[252][253][254]

WhatsApp has increasingly drawn its innovation from competing services,[255] such as a
Telegram-inspired web version[256] and features for groups.[257] In 2016, WhatsApp was accused
of copying features from a then-unreleased version of iMessage.[258]

See also
 Comparison of instant messaging clients
 Comparison of VoIP software
 List of most-downloaded Google Play applications
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1.  "WhatsApp gets accused of copying features from iMessage in iOS 10".

Deccan Chronicle. July 5, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
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 This page was last edited on 3 July 2020, at 23:42 (UTC).

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