Want to know more about WhatsApp?
WhatsApp says it serves more than 2 billion people in over 180 countries, with over a billion daily active users. WhatsApp Messenger is now the leading mobile messaging app in 169 countries.
Launched in 2009, WhatsApp is a free, multi-platform messaging app that lets users make video and voice calls, send text messages, share their status, and more with just a Wi-Fi connection. Part of what makes this app appealing is that it works on various phone and computer operating systems, so you can continue your conversation anytime, anywhere. It can also take advantage of Wi-Fi and cellular data to make one-on-one or group calls, reducing the need for expensive calling charges. If this sounds exciting so far, keep reading to find out everything you need to know about WhatsApp.
What of WhatsApp?
Automatically clear out your messages after a week: When it’s enabled, all your messages will disappear from a chat after seven days.
Format the text you send in a message: WhatsApp lets you bold, italicise or add strikethrough to text on the fly. To do so, you’ll need to add a couple of special characters before and after the text you want to format. To bold text in WhatsApp, use an asterisk (*bold*); italicise text with an underscore (_italics_); create strikethrough text with tildes (~strikethrough~).
Star a message: Starring a message creates a convenient way to go back to a meaningful message, phone number, address or article link a friend sent you. Long-press on the message, then tap on the Star icon.
Mute a conversation: When heading into a movie or meeting, use WhatsApp’s mute feature to silence a chatty group conversation or a friend who doesn’t get the hint that you’re busy.
Hide your last seen status: Don’t want friends or random contacts to know your “Last Seen” time? Open Settings > Account > Privacy > Last Seen. Then pick from Everyone, My Contacts or Nobody.
Disable read receipts: Going one step further, you can disable read receipts in WhatsApp. This will prevent fellow users from knowing you have read a message. Open Settings > Account > Privacy and uncheck the box or slide the switch next to Read Receipts to the Off position.
Don’t save photos or videos by default: If you’d rather not have WhatsApp saving every photo and video you receive to your camera roll, taking up space and cluttering up your own photos, disable autosave. On an iPhone, open Settings > Chats and turn off Save to Camera Roll. On Android, go to open Settings> Chats and turn off Media Visibility.
Receive custom notifications: Instead of having the same alert sound for every incoming message, you can set custom alerts for individual contacts. Doing so will make it easier to know who messaged you without looking at your phone. Android users should tap on the Menu icon when viewing a chat thread, followed by View Contact > Custom Notifications, check the box and then finish setting it up.
The latest development as a group admin
WhatsApp group admins should take note of a recent update to the app that could hold them legally liable for other users’ posts.
According to Sadlier, social media lawyer said: “If you are the admin of a WhatsApp group, because of this change, you become legally responsible for everything that appears on that group.”
“If somebody is abusing a group, they are sending hate speech, threats, incitement, racism, any content which is illegal, if you don’t delete the content, you become legally responsible for it.” Following the update, users have up to 48 hours to delete messages for everyone.
How secure is WhatsApp for business?
WhatsApp has several advanced security features. It has end-to-end encryption, just like Apple’s iMessage and Signal. All messages flowing through the platform are secured so that only the sender and the recipient can view them. This means WhatsApp couldn’t read your message even if it wanted to.
The app doesn’t store your personal information, and only people you approve as contacts can message you.
As with an increasing number of internet services like Google and Facebook, WhatsApp uses two-factor authentication, which has you type in a second passcode sent to your phone via text message to access your account. Group messages can conflict with some privacy settings, however, in that if you have blocked someone, they can still appear in a group message that you can see.
For more information about WhatsApp for business or information technology to help you improve your business processes, request a free IT assessment today or get in touch with us at info@rito-tech.co.za or call us on 010 213 7016 and we will gladly assist you.
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