Both airlines had previously launched customer services on the Facebook Messenger platform. Koum updated WhatsApp so that everyone in the user’s network would be notified when a user’s status changed. WhatsApp Desktop is the official WhatsApp client for Windows that lets you use this popular instant messaging tool from the comfort of your desktop. At your disposal are exactly the same features and tools as in the mobile apps. In February 2017, WhatsApp reached 200 million monthly active users in India. On June 13, 2013, WhatsApp announced that they had reached their new daily record by processing 27 billion messages.

Brazil

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• The Cloud API enables businesses to integrate WhatsApp with other software, have a central WhatsApp account for multiple users and implement advanced automation.

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• In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client.
• 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.
• Linked devices automatically log out after 14 days of inactivity on the primary phone.

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• On May 18, 2017, the European Commission announced that it was fining Facebook €110 million for „providing misleading information about WhatsApp takeover“ in 2014.

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• In December 2023, WhatsApp’s „View Once“ feature expanded to include voice messages.

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In October 2020, WhatsApp rolled out a feature allowing users to mute both individuals and group chats forever. According to the company, messages could be edited within a 15-minute window after being sent. Edited messages were tagged as „edited“ to inform recipients that the content had been modified. On February 24, 2017, WhatsApp launched a new Status feature similar to Snapchat and Facebook stories. The Cloud API enables businesses to integrate WhatsApp with other software, have a central WhatsApp account for multiple users and implement advanced automation. 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.

About this app

• The idea started off as an app that would display statuses in a phone’s Contacts menu, showing if a person was at work or on a call.
• WhatsApp has been officially supported for iPads and its iPadOS since May 27, 2025.

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• 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.

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• Since the complete roll out of this feature, users cannot check old messages before this period on the Web version anymore.

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• 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.

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• Days after the announcement, WhatsApp users experienced a loss of service, leading to anger across social media.

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Koum then hired a friend in Los Angeles, Chris Peiffer, to develop a BlackBerry version, which arrived two months later. However, when early versions of WhatsApp kept crashing, Koum considered giving up and looking for a new job. A month earlier, after Koum purchased an iPhone, he and Acton decided to create an app for the App Store. The idea started off as an app that would display statuses in a phone’s Contacts menu, showing if a person was at work or on a call.

Murders in India

On May 18, 2017, the European Commission announced that it was fining Facebook €110 million for „providing misleading information about WhatsApp takeover“ in 2014. 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“. 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. 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.

Platform support

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• In October 2023 they also introduced passkey support, where a user can verify their login with on-device biometrics, rather than SMS.
• Higher usage was reported by frontline clinical staff to keep up with care needs, even though NHS trust policies do not permit their use.
• WhatsApp was announced to be the 3rd most downloaded mobile phone app of the decade 2010–2019.

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• WhatsApp also introduced chat filters, allowing users to sort their chats by All, Unread or Groups.

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• However, when early versions of WhatsApp kept crashing, Koum considered giving up and looking for a new job.

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• WhatsApp Desktop is the official WhatsApp client for Windows that lets you use this popular instant messaging tool from the comfort of your desktop.

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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. WhatsApp is owned by Meta, whose main social media service Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009. In September 2017, security researchers reported to The New York Times that the WhatsApp service had been completely blocked in China. 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. Higher usage was reported by frontline clinical staff to keep up with care needs, even though NHS trust policies do not permit their use.

VoiceOver

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. 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. Now, the feature is also made available to iOS users, allowing them to link up to four iPhones. The web client was not standalone, and required the user’s phone to stay on and connected to the internet. Since then, linked devices support has expanded and more information is written in the Platform Support part of this article.
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BiP – Messenger, Video Call

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Both Telegram and Signal in particular Lucky Friends casino were reported to get registration spikes during WhatsApp outages and controversies. Since the complete roll out of this feature, users cannot check old messages before this period on the Web version anymore. In January 2021, WhatsApp announced a controversial new privacy policy allowing WhatsApp to share data with its parent company, Facebook.
Unlike messages in groups or private chats, channels are not end-to-end encrypted. In October 2023 they also introduced passkey support, where a user can verify their login with on-device biometrics, rather than SMS. In November 2023, WhatsApp also began rolling out support for sending login codes to a linked email address, rather than via SMS. Voice calls between two accounts were added to the app in March and April 2015. 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.
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User statistics

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At that point WhatsApp was adding about 25 million new users every month, or 833,000 active users per day. The organization reported a massive drop-off in traffic for the blocked services, though the country’s government made no official statements about the block. In May 2019, WhatsApp was attacked by hackers who installed spyware on a number of victims‘ smartphones. 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 January 2022, an unsealed surveillance application revealed that WhatsApp started tracking seven users from China and Macau in November 2021, based on a request from US DEA investigators.
According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp „has done to SMS on mobile phones what Skype did to international calling on landlines“. The messages involved discussing how to make an explosive device and a confession to the attack. In September 2019, WhatsApp was criticized for its implementation of a ‚delete for everyone‘ feature. 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.