Later in September 2018, WhatsApp introduced group audio and video call features. According to the company, messages could be edited within a 15-minute window after being sent. In 2022, WhatsApp added the ability for users to turn off their online status. In August 2022, WhatsApp launched an integration with JioMart, available only to users in India. The Cloud API enables businesses to integrate WhatsApp with other software, have a central WhatsApp account for multiple users and implement advanced automation.
Live and Motion Photos, Meta AI Chat Themes, Video Call Backgrounds, and More on WhatsApp
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. In February 2015, WhatsApp implemented voice calling, which helped WhatsApp to attract a different segment of the user population. Previously the Android and Nokia Series 40 versions used an MD5-hashed, reversed-version of the phone’s IMEI as a password, while the iOS version used the phone’s Wi-Fi MAC address instead of the IMEI. WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible messaging and presence protocol (XMPP).
Previously between March 2016 and May 2017, only limited file types categorised as images (JPG, PNG, GIF), videos (MP4, AVI), and documents (CSV, DOC/DOCX, PDF, PPT/PPTX, RTF, TXT, XLS/XLSX), were allowed to be shared for file attachments. In July 2017, WhatsApp added support for file uploads of all file types, with a limit of 100 MB. Voice messages sent this way are deleted after the recipient listens to them the first time.
*new features*
The application can store encrypted copies of the chat messages onto the SD card, but chat messages are also stored unencrypted in the SQLite database file «msgstore.db». 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. 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.
India
As of May 2025, the service had 3 billion monthly active users, making it the most used messenger app. 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. WhatsApp has increasingly drawn its innovation from competing services, such as a Telegram-inspired web version and features for groups. According to Globes, already by 2013 the application was installed on 92% of all smartphones, with 86% of users reporting daily use. In May 2025, Meta reported WhatsApp had over 3 billion monthly active users globally.
- At that point WhatsApp was adding about 25 million new users every month, or 833,000 active users per day.
- At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-capital-backed company in history.
- WhatsApp is owned by Meta, whose main social media service Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009.
In January 2021, WhatsApp announced an updated privacy policy which stated that WhatsApp would share user data with Facebook and its «family of companies» beginning February 2021. 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 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. 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.
Telegram Messenger
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. In April 2017, nearly 300 WhatsApp groups with about 250 members each were reportedly being used to mobilize stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir to disrupt security forces‘ operations at encounter sites. The messages involved discussing how to make an explosive device and a confession to the attack.
Platform support
WhatsApp has rolled out a feature called ‚Voice Status Updates‘, which allows users to record voice notes and share them as their status on the app. 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. WhatsApp 2.0, released for iPhone in August 2009, featured a purpose-designed messaging component; the number of active users suddenly increased to 250,000. 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.
- By February 2017, WhatsApp had over 1.2 billion users globally, reaching 1.5 billion monthly active users by the end of 2017.
- (The word «telegram» appeared in WhatsApp’s code.) Some considered it an anti-competitive measure; WhatsApp offered no explanation.
- Both airlines had previously launched customer services on the Facebook Messenger platform.
WhatsApp was announced to be the 3rd most downloaded mobile phone app of the decade 2010–2019. The company also reported that Windows Phone operating systems would no longer be supported after December 31, 2019. On January 18, 2016, WhatsApp’s vegas casino app 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 payment cards. By early January 2015, WhatsApp had 700 million monthly users and over 30 billion messages every day. Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss of service, leading to anger across social media.
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. 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. 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.
Store support and legal
In September 2024, WhatsApp expanded support for Meta AI, allowing users to send text and photos to Meta AI to ask questions, identify objects, translate text or edit pictures. 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. Now, the feature is also made available to iOS users, allowing them to link up to four iPhones. WhatsApp officially rolled out the Companion mode for Android users, allowing linking up to five Android phones to a single account. 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. In January 2015, WhatsApp launched a web client that allowed users to scan a QR code with their mobile app, mirroring their chats to their browser.
By 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. When this multi-device feature was first introduced to Android and iOS users, it could only show messages for the last three months on the Web version, because the Web version was syncing with the phone. Similar to voice messages, this feature allows users to record and send short videos directly in a chat. This allows users to send messages between other messaging apps and WhatsApp while maintaining end-to-end encryption. In May 2017, it was reported that WhatsApp users spend over 340 million minutes on video calls each day on the app.
However, the WhatsApp privacy policy does not apply in the EU, since it violates the principles of GDPR. In March 2020, WhatsApp partnered with the World Health Organization and UNICEF to provide messaging hotlines for people to get information on the COVID-19 pandemic. On November 25, 2019, WhatsApp announced an investment of $250,000 through a partnership with Startup India to provide 500 startups with Facebook ad credits of $500 each. In September 2017, WhatsApp’s co-founder Brian Acton left the company to start a nonprofit group, later revealed as the Signal Foundation, which developed the WhatsApp competitor Signal. On May 18, 2017, the European Commission announced that it was fining Facebook €110 million for «providing misleading information about WhatsApp takeover» in 2014.
In December 2015, it was reported that terrorist organization ISIS had been using WhatsApp to plot the November 2015 Paris attacks. In its revelation via documents received via court, the group claimed that the lawsuit brought against the company by WhatsApp threatened to infringe on its clients‘ «national security and foreign policy concerns». In May 2019, WhatsApp was attacked by hackers who installed spyware on a number of victims‘ smartphones. Higher usage was reported by frontline clinical staff to keep up with care needs, even though NHS trust policies do not permit their use. Further, the Cabinet Office had claimed that since many messages were not relevant to the inquiry, it only needed to hand over material it had selected as being relevant.
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. Since the complete roll out of this feature, users cannot check old messages before this period on the Web version anymore. In July 2021 the company was also testing multi-device support, allowing computer users to run WhatsApp without an active phone session. In August 2013, WhatsApp added voice messages to their apps, giving users a way to send short audio recordings directly in their chats.
In January 2021, WhatsApp announced a controversial new privacy policy allowing WhatsApp to share data with its parent company, Facebook. In April 2018, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum announced he would be leaving the company. Both airlines had previously launched customer services on the Facebook Messenger platform. WhatsApp also announced a forthcoming business platform to enable companies to provide customer service at scale, and airlines KLM and Aeroméxico announced their participation in the testing. 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. In April 2015, Forbes predicted that between 2012 and 2018, the telecommunications industry would lose $386 billion because of «over-the-top» services like WhatsApp and Skype.