WhatsApp has announced a new version of its app will be available on the JioPhone, a phone that runs on KaiOS. KaiOS, based on what was known as FirefoxOS at one point in time, runs on low-powered feature phones. A few of said phones are available in South Africa too, like the Nokia 8110. The chat application will soon terminate support for older Android smartphones, iOS and Windows devices. Notably, it's the first indication that the social messenger now supports the operating system, even though it does allow for some apps and internet connectivity. This too is an indication that the app may...
You may want to think twice about posting your mobile number to Twitter, even if it's to "WhatsApp Africa". A tweet posted on Monday by "@whatsapp_Africa" dupes users into tweeting their mobile numbers in exchange for free data. "We are giving away free what’s app data for the whole of September," reads the tweet verbatim. "Follow and retweet. Comment with your WhatsApp number." Notably, the tweet was also labeled as "promoted" by Twitter. At the time of writing, the post has more than 110 replies with many including mobile numbers. Some users however had questions, and even more doubts that the account was...
If you need more than 15GB of storage space for all those reaction GIFs, cat pictures and birthday party videos, Google and WhatsApp has some good news. "Starting November 12, 2018, WhatsApp backups will no longer count towards the Google Drive storage quota," alerts the messaging service in an update to its FAQ. Previously, WhatsApp backups -- essential when transferring accounts across phones -- counted towards Google Drive's 15GB storage quota. If your Drive didn't have any free space, you couldn't complete a backup. This is no longer the case. With that said though, Google will now delete backups that are older than...
WhatsApp on Monday announced that video and voice calling for groups is rolling out globally. Competing against the likes of Apple's FaceTime and Microsoft's Skype, Facebook-owned chat service will allow groups of up to four to engage in voice or video chats "anytime and anywhere". "Just start a one-on-one voice or video call and tap the new 'add participant' button in the top right corner to add more contacts to the call," the company explains in a blog post. For South Africans and others in low-quality internet markets, WhatsApp stresses that the service is designed to "work reliably around the world in...
WhatsApp is simple enough in theory. It's a messaging application with voice and video call support. But that's merely its elevator pitch. When diving down into its many settings and features, WhatsApp can be tailored to your needs provided you know exactly how to tame it. If you're someone who hates visiting FAQs or haven't really tweaked a messaging service before, this article's for you. How do I change by WhatsApp number, and inform my contacts? If you have a new smartphone number and don't want to sacrifice your contacts, groups or settings from your old number, there's a setting that allows you...
Last week WhatsApp announced that it will label forwarded messages. This week, the social media platform is launching a test to limit forwarded messages altogether. Limited forwarding means that there will be a certain number of chats you can forward to a group of specific user at a time. Though the blog post did not say what this limit will specifically be, it did state that users in India will be given a "lower" limit of five chats at once, along with the removal of the quick forwarding option. According to WhatsApp, India has the highest forwarding traffic of any nation. "We believe...
A new feature on WhatsApp will now indicate if a message you receive has been forwarded from another conversation. This means that you will be able to see if you are the original receiver of a message or not. Forwarding messages is a simple affair: hold said message until WhatsApp's top command bar is visible, then hit the right-facing arrow icon at the right hand side of the bar. A list of contacts will then appear. Additionally, if you receive a forwarded message, you will be notified by a small label above said message. "This extra context will help make one-on-one and group chats...
In a not-all-that-exciting update, WhatsApp has tweaked the way groups work on its platform. There are five distinct changes outlined by the company on its blog. Firstly, group descriptions are now more verbose, allowing users to set "the purpose, guidelines or topics for the group". (Good luck sticking to them though.) "When a new person joins a group, the description will show up at the top of the chat," the company highlights. Secondly, group admins can now determine "who can change the group's subject, icon, and description" through the group settings menu. "Admins can now remove admin permissions of other group participants, and group...
An update to WhatsApp on iOS brings with its a nifty new feature. Users who send one another Instagram or Facebook videos can now play said videos within WhatsApp. This means that you needn't leave the chat app, to visit Facebook, watch that viral video of a lemming, and return with thoughts to the aforementioned chat app. This now fits alongside its already established YouTube, audio and GIF playback support. It's a small tweak, but tells of a more integrated Facebook ecosystem we'll likely see in the future. The update, labelled as 2.18.51, is live in the US, but it's not clear if...
Facebook's raising WhatsApp's minimum age to 16 in Europe, as the company prepares to iron its shirt ahead the forthcoming instalment of the General Data Protection Regulation. At present, teenagers as young as 13 can sign up to use the messaging service, in similar vein to Facebook's other properties. It's not clear if the company's will review its minimum age on its other services too. Nevertheless, new users signing into WhatsApp will be asked to confirm their age. It'll be interesting to see just how, or if, WhatsApp and Facebook will enforce this, considering that little information is shared on the chat...
Have too many WhatsApp groups with arbitrary names? Well now you can add a "group description" to differentiate the one from the other. The feature was first spotted in WhatsApp's beta versions in late February, but is now rolling out to the app's stable channel. As the name of the feature suggests, it allows users to set a brief description for any group made within the chat app. The description will appear below the group's name on the group info page. While this is nice for differentiating the millions of hiking groups I've involuntarily been enrolled in, you may want to guard against...
That awkward moment when you hit send and realise that sultry message you just drafted for your significant other is heading to your granny's WhatsApp instead. If you noticed your error within seven minutes, you were able to delete it, and avoid an even more awkward conversation at the upcoming family reunion. But WhatsApp is about to make your errant messages a little less permanent and family reunions a lot less avoidable. According to an update sniffed out by WABetaInfo, the latest Android beta (version 2.18.69) allows users to delete messages up to 4096 seconds after you've sent it -- that's...
There's a brand new official version of WhatsApp, but it won't be replacing the current green-icon messenger you know and love. Instead, the Facebook-owned service has today launched WhatsApp Business -- an app that "will make it easier for companies to connect with customers" and can be installed alongside the default app. The reason for a distinct business app is simple. The messaging service claims in a blog post that the original app -- now harbouring over 1.3-billion users -- "was built for people" and not companies. WhatsApp Business largely addresses these issues, giving companies more room in their profiles to include...
How did you wish loved ones a Happy New Year? For some across the world who typically use WhatsApp, this task was made difficult by an unexpected year-end outage. But in spite of this poor luck, the Facebook-owned messaging service still recorded a new single day pinnacle for messages sent and received on its platform. A record 75-billion messages were reportedly sent and received on New Year's Eve, besting the previous number -- set last year -- by some 12-billion. That's an average of about 57 messages per WhatsApp user. 13-billion images and five billion videos were also snapped, recorded and shared...
WhatsApp is down yet again, this according to user reports published to Twitter on Thursday evening. Tweets suggest that the messaging service began experiencing issues just before 9pm SAST. Is whatsapp down for everyone else? — Leo (@taylorleoswift) November 30, 2017 Anyone else's #WhatsappDown? — Krupesh (@krupeshn) November 30, 2017 According to website status dashboard DownDetector, users across Europe, Africa, South America, the Asian subcontinent and the Middle East cannot send or receive messages. This also includes us in South Africa. WhatsApp's previous worldwide outage came earlier this month. There's no indication of the cause of this particular service disruption. Is the messaging app down for you too?...
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