WhatsApp skewed Brazilian election, proving social media’s danger to democracy
Misinformation via social media played a troubling role in boosting far-right Congressman Jair Bolsonaro to into the Brazilian presidency. Bolsonaro did not win 55 percent of votes thanks to misinformation alone. A powerful desire for political change in Brazil after a yearslong corruption scandal and a court decision compelling the jailed front-runner Luis Inacio Lula da Silva to withdraw from th...[Read More]
You could soon invite people on WhatsApp with a QR Code
WhatsApp is testing a new feature that will allow users to add contacts using QR codes. Users will be able to scan the code in the app and the other person’s contact information will be imported immediately. Each QR code will be completely unique and shareable. This feature is ideal for businesses that connect with their customers on WhatsApp. This would allow them to distribute printed QR codes o...[Read More]
How to make your own WhatsApp stickers on Android
Creating personalised stickers is by no means a native WhatsApp feature, and like with many things, Facebook has decided to sneakily nab the idea from other messenger apps (like Telegram and WeChat), and add it to its own messaging app. It’s still an awesome feature though. And will likely replace standard stickers altogether one day. WhatsApp stickers have just started to roll out for Android and...[Read More]
Confirmed: WhatsApp will start showing ads
Hopefully you’ve started transitioning to an alternative messaging service, because WhatsApp Vice-president Chris Daniels recently confirmed that the service will start showing ads. After the departure of both founders (who were against the idea of monetisation through ads), the company has decided that it’s time to flood the only safe space you had left with adverts. The ads will only be displaye...[Read More]
Signal messaging app beefing up security for its users
While WhatsApp is reportedly planning ads for users, other messaging apps are beefing up security and encryption to keep user information safe. Signal, the messaging app with arguably the best end-to-end encryption around (no offence Telegram), is rolling out a new feature that will further protect the identities of message senders. Since it began, Signal has not collected or kept any user data (s...[Read More]
WhatsApp adding stickers to iOS and Android
We’re noticing a trend from the Facebook team this year — adding as many features as possible to already perfectly good services. Next up, WhatsApp will gain the ability to send stickers to friends. You’ll likely be familiar with stickers in other messaging apps like Telegram or Signal and (a version of) the feature is finally making the jump over to the Facebook-owned service. Support for s...[Read More]
Incoming WhatsApp features will make it easier to silence the annoying on your friends list
Yes, we know that messaging apps like WhatApp have supplied us with near-instant communication, a level of contact that was unthinkable just a few years ago. But it’s also brought on having to deal with notifications, sometimes (usually) from groups with nothing better to do with their time than waste yours. That… could be about to change. WABetaInfo, a site that regularly digs through...[Read More]
Some WhatsApp accounts are getting hacked, here’s how to make sure it doesn’t happen to you
Reports emerged yesterday that some Israeli WhatsApp users’ accounts have been hacked, and that the problem is sufficiently widespread that the Israeli government has seen fit to send out a warning about it. Leave a message The hack exploits the fact that many consumers never change their voicemail PIN from the default ‘0000’ or ‘1234’. Hackers use WhatsApp’s se...[Read More]
Facebook appoints Adam Mosseri as the new head of Instagram
The company renowned for making headlines for all the wrong reasons these days, Facebook, has named Adam Mosseri the new head of Instagram. He succeeds founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who announced their departure earlier this month, amid rumours that ongoing clashes with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg were largely to blame for their decision to leave the company they started. Before this p...[Read More]
Facebook on track to start adding ads to WhatsApp – starting with iOS
There’s a lot going on over at the Facebook-owned outfits. Instagram’s founders have bounced, there’s been another (huge) data breach, and Facebook is starting to use phone numbers for advertising — let’s add another item to the pile, this one concerned with WhatsApp. Facebook’s WhatsApp is set to start getting advertising soon, starting with the iOS version of ...[Read More]
WhatsApp could be getting Dark Mode, swipe-to-reply features for Android
WhatsApp has had itself a fairly busy year. When its user numbers aren’t climbing to Facebook-like levels it has been getting new features, like groups with an administrator and a whole lot less reply-spam to group video calling, like we’re in some 1990s tech future. And we could be in for a new more changes soon. The folks over at XDA Developers have spotted a few features that may be...[Read More]
Three alternative messaging apps to WhatsApp
WhatsApp is the go-to messaging app for most South Africans. The Facebook-owned service is undoubtedly the most popular messaging platform on the planet, second only to WeChat in terms of total daily users, but far surpassing it in geographical reach. Is it too big to fail? What would we do without it? Umm, probably just move on to the next best messaging app… The company has been pushing out new ...[Read More]