Skip to main content

WhatsApp activates end-to-end encryption for one billion users

whatsapp
Image used with permission by copyright holder
If you’re a WhatsApp user, you’ll be happy to know that everything you do in the app is now protected by end-to-end encryption.

“From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call you make, and every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you send, is end-to-end encrypted by default, including group chats,” founder Jan Koum has stated on the WhatsApp blog.

Recommended Videos

That means more than one billion people, whether they are using an iPhone, an Android device, a Nokia device, a Blackberry, or a Windows Phone, are being protected from hackers, cyber-criminals, governments, and anyone interested in eavesdropping on their conversations. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, claims that it cannot read the messages either.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

It’s still unclear if WhatsApp will be able to help law enforcement get access to data in connection with criminal investigations. The Department of Justice has recently been examining how it can proceed with wiretap orders related to WhatsApp, as it cannot break into the encrypted service, according to The New York Times.

Koum has spoken out about the benefits and importance of encryption before, notably when Apple was facing a court order to provide a backdoor into the iPhone of the San Bernardino terrorist shooter. WhatsApp was a part of group of tech companies that filed an amicus brief in support of Apple.

Koum grew up in the USSR during communist rule, and has experienced first-hand a culture where people can’t speak freely. He has mentioned before that it’s one of the reasons his family moved to the U.S.

“Encryption is one of the most important tools governments, companies, and individuals have to promote safety and security in the new digital age,” Koum said in the announcement. “Recently there has been a lot of discussion about encrypted services and the work of law enforcement. While we recognize the important work of law enforcement in keeping people safe, efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing people’s information to abuse from cyber-criminals, hackers, and rogue states.”

Koum is referring to the recent Apple vs. FBI showdown. Apple was facing a court order to provide a backdoor into the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter. Apple refused, asserting that creating new code for the FBI could threaten the privacy and security of all its customers. The Department of Justice dropped the order after the FBI found a way to hack into the iPhone via a third party.

whatsapp-e2e-notice

End-to-end encryption has been available for WhatsApp’s messages since 2014 on Android, and the company has partnered with Open Whisper Systems again to bring the full experience to all its services. The app will notify users if a conversation is or is not encrypted.

“Once a client recognizes a contact as being fully e2e capable, it will not permit transmitting plain text to that contact, even if that contact were to downgrade to a version of the software that is not fully e2e capable,” according to Open Whisper System’s blog. “This prevents the server or a network attacker from being able to perform a downgrade attack.”

You’re not required to do anything, as updating the app turns encryption on by default.

Julian Chokkattu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
WhatsApp now lets you send self-destructing voice messages
WhatsApp logo on a phone.

If you’re on WhatsApp and regularly make use of the view once feature for photo and video messages, then you might be interested to learn that the feature has now been expanded to voice messages.

WhatsApp’s view once feature does what it says, deleting a message after it’s been viewed a single time. It’s been available for photos and videos since 2021, but now you can also send voice messages that can only be played once before they, too, disappear from the app.

Read more
WhatsApp used to be one of my favorite apps. Now, I can’t stand it
WhatsApp logo on a phone held in hand.

For the best part of the last decade, WhatsApp has been my primary means to stay in touch with friends, family, peers at work, and even strangers. Texting is not as prevalent in my country, India, as it is in the U.S. for reasons such as the sheer dominance of Android users (as well as the diminutive share of iOS, and therefore, iMessage users), capped carrier costs for SMS-based messaging, and the poor understanding of RCS.

WhatsApp, on the other hand, is more widely used here than any other communication medium, primarily because it's free and allows the exchange of a multitude of types of media without being limited by national borders. People of all ages use and love it -- and they collectively send enough messages to clog up the internet.

Read more
WhatsApp now lets you add short video messages to chats
WhatsApp logo on a phone.

You can now send short video messages in a WhatsApp chat, Meta announced on Thursday.

A video message can last for up to 60 seconds long and is protected with end-to-end encryption.

Read more