by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
London : Users in India and other parts of the world went into a frenzy after WhatsApp went down puncturing their plans to wish their friends a “prosperous 2018” at the stroke of midnight. It was restored in two hours.
At midnight, a large spike was seen in the number of reports that the messaging service was suffering outages in India, Japan, Britain, Barbados, Panama, South Africa, Spain and Qatar, The Mirror reported.
According to downdetector.co.uk, it received 2,012 reports that WhatsApp was not working at its peak.
Thousands of people took to Twitter and other social media platforms to express anger, as well as connect with their dear ones, while the Facebook-owned instant messenger remained dormant for almost two hours on Sunday.
Several people used social media to vent their frustrations using the #whatsappdown.
One Twitter user wrote: “Nothing could’ve been better than whatsapp servers crashing on new year’s eve #whatsappdown #WhatsApp”
Another said: “Open Whatsapp. Send message. Nothing. Airplane mode on. Airplane mode off. Nothing. Open twitter. See £whatsappDown. Find relief that it’s not just me. #HappyNewYear2018.”
The app appeared to display a permanent loading wheel with messages failing to deliver. Whatsapp later apologised.
“WhatsApp users around the world experienced a brief outage today that has now been resolved. We apologise for the inconvenience,” a spokeswoman for the messaging service was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, some smartphones could have experienced this problem due to WhatsApp cutting support for some operating systems.
Last week, the company confirmed that the mobile messaging app will stop working on a number of platforms from December 31.
The messaging app dropped the support for ‘BlackBerry OS’, ‘BlackBerry 10’, ‘Windows Phone 8.0’ and older platforms, from December 31.
“We will no longer actively develop for these platforms, some features may stop functioning at any time,” WhatsApp had said at that time.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : WhatsApp is testing new features for its over one billion users that include tap to unblock and private replies in groups, among others.
In the latest WhatsApp Android Beta version, spotted by the popular fan website WABetaInfo, “when you want to select a contact from the Contact List, you can easily chat to blocked contacts simply unblocking them using the new action: tap and hold the cell to unblock and send a message”.
The Private Replies feature will let users reply privately to a person within a group. With this feature, you need not leave the group to reply someone.
In Group Info, WhatsApp has added a new shortcut called Invite via link, very similar to the option you can find in the iOS app.
“This is visible only to administrators,” the website said.
“In future, you will also be able to shake your device while you are in a chat to report something wrong to WhatsApp!,” the website added.
This action will open the Contact Us section, where your logs can be sent to WhatsApp to help them to investigate.
In an iOS update, WhatsApp is also working on an option that will allow users to make a group call.
“You will be able, in future, to find a new section called Admin Settings, where there will be two options: Send messages and Edit group info,” the website said.
Another “Picture-in-Picture” feature will soon let users have a video chat with their friends and simultaneously message someone else.
As businesses widely use WhatsApp to communicate with their customers, particularly in Asia, the Facebook-owned service also appears set to launch a brand new app for them.
In a new FAQ published on its site, WhatsApp revealed more details about the upcoming Business accounts like how to identify verified Business accounts from non-verified ones.
“While chatting with businesses, you can check your contact’s profile to see which type of account they’re using. A verified account has a green checkmark badge in its profile,” WhatsApp wrote in the FAQ.
The much-talked-about WhatsApp for business app is currently being tested by a private group of testers and the company will introduce it as aWhatsApp Business’ a” a standalone app.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Muslim World, Social Media
Kabul : In a move that can curb “freedom of expression”, the Afghanistan government has asked several private telecommunication companies to suspend WhatsApp and Telegram instant messaging services in the country.
Although the apps, popular among the country’s elite, were still working on private telecom operators on Friday, customers of Salaam Telecom, a government-owned service provider, reported that both apps had stopped working for them, The New York Times reported late Friday.
“It is wrong and illegal,” Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, executive director of Nai, a group that campaigns for free speech, was quoted as saying.
“According to the Constitution, freedom of expression is inviolable in Afghanistan.
“WhatsApp and Telegram are tools of free speech — if the government bans them, it means that tomorrow they could stand against media in Afghanistan too,” he added.
The clarity on the reason for the temprory ban was not obtained but on Thursday, the deputy director of the telecoms regulatory authority told the BBC that the ban was due to “security concerns”.
WhatsApp and Telegram are often used by the Taliban and other militant groups to evade government surveillance, the report said.
An official from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said that the request on the 20-day ban had come from the National Directorate of Security, the country’s intelligence agency.
The ministry said that the apps were being temporarily banned “to introduce a new kind of technology”, because users had complained about the quality of WhatsApp’s service.
It also denied that the ban constituted a threat to freedom of expression.
“WhatsApp and Telegram are just applications for contact and the sending of audio messages, and this does not affect freedom of speech,” the ministry added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, Social Media, Technology, World
London : The European Union’s data regulator group has rapped WhatsApp for the “take it or leave it approach” it has taken regarding sharing of user data with the parent company Facebook.
The EU data regulator has launched a taskforce to implement “a clear, comprehensive resolution” to comply with EU law, the Guardian reported on Thursday.
The taskforce has been set up by the pan-European data regulator, the Article 29 Working Party (WP29), a year after it first issued a warning to the chat app over its sharing of user data with the wider group of Facebook companies, forcing it to pause data transfer.
WhatsApp changed its privacy policy last year to start sharing users’ phone numbers and other information with Facebook.
The change drew widespread regulatory scrutiny across Europe.
The scrutiny focused on the requirement for users to consent to the sharing of data and the level of information provided for them to make an informed choice.
In a letter sent to WhatsApp this week, WP29 said the company had still not resolved its concerns about getting user consent for the data sharing.
The regulators said that the information given to users about the privacy policy update was “seriously deficient as a means to inform their consent”.
The group said the “take it or leave it approach”, which mandated users who disagreed should simply stop using the service did not constitute freely given consent, while pre-ticked boxes did not constitute unambiguous consent, the Guardian report said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, Social Media, Technology
Courtesy : mirror.co.uk
San Francisco : In a move that will help women and kids connect with their families and friends as they travel, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has introduced ‘Live Location’ feature.
The feature that allows people to share location in real-time with family or friends.
The end-to-end encrypted feature lets people control who they share with and for how long. You can choose to stop sharing at any time or let the Live Location timer simply expire.
“The Live Location feature in WhatsApp makes women feel confident about sharing their real-time location or a journey with someone close, so that it can be tracked for a purpose and privately,” said Sohini Bhattacharya, CEO of Breakthrough, a non-profit organisation, in a statement on Wednesday.
This is how this feature works. Open a chat with the person or group you want to share with. Under “Location” in the attach button, there’s a new option to “Share Live Location”.
Choose for how long you want to share and tap send. Each person in the chat will be able to see your real-time location on a map.
And if more than one person shares their Live Location in the group, all locations will be visible on the same map.
Live Location is available on both Android and iPhone and will be rolling out in the app in the coming weeks.
This feature will prove to be extremely useful during disasters and crisis situations, as help and relief can be provided more effectively and quickly.
“For women, in unsafe and dangerous situations, it may be a helpful tool for police officials and families, as real-time locations can be shared easily in WhatsApp,” said Ranjana Kumari from Centre for Social Research.
—IANS
