This is to help Zuck categorize which chats he will view first. The more private chat, the more money to be made.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
WhatsApp Gains Chat Lock Feature for More Private Conversations
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
True. But maybe after a while your wife will be wondering why you're having so many late night conversations with your "Dentist", and pick up your phone and take a look...
In the UK and most of Europe, it's pretty much the only chat app that anyone ever uses. Everyone uses it for almost everything. The only people I ever get iMessages from are my Mum (who I suspect just accidentally opens the wrong app), and Americans.
No, you're thinking of Facebook Messenger. There is no WhatsApp Apple Watch app and there never has been. Replying to notifications is a built-in feature of the Apple Watch, and doesn't need an app.
Unfortunately, yes. I really wish the world would move away from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Some countries heavily rely on WhatsApp and it's disgusting. Here in the UK a lot of companies now have a WhatsApp for customer service making it difficult or more hassle to get help.
It's easily the most used messaging app. My co-workers pester me to join WhatsApp and I've told them that if they want to get in touch with me they will have to either call or text me and I explained that since most of them have iPhones they could even Facetime or use iMessage but they didn't seem to understand what I was saying.
I straight up refuse to use any Facebook products. My boss tried getting us all on WhatsApp (I'm actually not the only one who doesn't use it) and I told her no I'm not using it. Thankfully it was just an idea she had and it wasn't something the higher ups told her to do. If it ever came to the point where it was mandatory work policy to use WhatsApp then I'd tell them I need a work phone. I am not installing any Facebook apps on my personal phone. It's not happening.
I'm kind of in this boat too (avoiding Meta products on principle), but I make an exception for WhatsApp. It really is a good app, great UX, extremely reliable, doesn't have ads, doesn't require you to have a Facebook account, etc. So I don't see what the problem is.
Yes, I know they crosslink data between Meta's different apps/platforms, but they can't crosslink your WhatsApp with your Facebook if you don't have a Facebook account.
My guess is the Russians would have physically forced him to unlock that chat. This is a better use case for disappearing messages and encrypted backups.
Everyone in Latin America uses WhatsApp, even my bank sent me an automated message a couple of weeks ago asking me to confirm a suspicious transaction; they used to call me before. The only reason I would use imessage is to send uncompressed pictures, but an icloud link does the same.
I remember back in the day, at least in my country BlackBerry messenger was the de facto app, WhatsApp was the way of talking with the minority of android users. Over time WhatsApp took over and no one had a reason to buy BlackBerry anymore, it didn't have angry birds and the newly launched (on android) instagram. You had to pay the phone upfront so no one had iPhone.
What does Apple have to do with it? They aren't preventing it. It's on Meta to just do it.
Yes. It is quite popular in a large part of the world, but it does differ per region and of course each persons social bubble. Only in asian and african countries other messaging apps take the lead, according to multiple statistics and what I hear from people living in these places. But you can wonder on whose datacenters these platforms run.
But on-topic: there's no real fully private conversation with Meta applications. Like Google, Meta's business is datamining, period.
LOL all the people in the comments wanting this for the Messages app just need to say they wanna cheat. 😂
Yep my sister even requested an appointment for her passport renewal via WhatsApp in Mexico. Here in Berlin, you need to be lucky to find a free online booking for the next 3+ months and then actually go there to renew it and again to pick it up!
I still need to understand why this app has gained such immense popularity, except for those who need to communicate with Android users. It can be exhausting to juggle five ways of connecting with people: Snapchat, WhatsApp, iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and more. It starts to feel overwhelming. I also have reservations about trusting Facebook. While I might occasionally post a picture or two to let people know I'm still alive or share something funny, my reliance on Facebook has diminished. I am not comfortable entrusting my personal information to either Google or Facebook.
WhatsApp came out when most countries’ phone companies were charging like $0.05 or more per text message. The USA was one of the only counties where unlimited talk & text were popular plans, probably because iMessage removed the need to send old school SMS messages in the USA.
In other countries iPhones were not as popular as Android so a cross-platform way of avoiding ridiculous SMS fees was very appealing. And they were the first to do it.
Plus the app is stupidly simple to use. Your ID is your phone number. You don’t need an email address or separate account. In many parts of the world, people don’t have computers and their first and only exposure to the internet is through their cheap Android phone. They don’t have or need an email ID. WhatsApp is everything.
In many parts of Europe, Latin America and probably other parts of the world there is no 'juggling' for most people. There's just WhatsApp.
At the end of the day it doesn't really matter from a usability point of view whether your go to app is Messages or WhatsApp. The main benefits of iMessage are that it can revert to text, which most people here care very little about, and that it syncs across to your Mac, but most people don't have a Mac.
As a messenger, iMessage isn't really better than WhatsApp and, in some ways, it's worse. Its popularity is equally puzzling since it doesn't actually work with Android users, of which there are plenty.
I also resisted using WhatsApp for a looong time (and I've never had a Facebook account). But the fact that my kids became die-hard WhatsApp fans, not to mention that most of my extended family and friends used it, and I really had no choice.
It's just so super popular over here in the UK. Yes, I could make a stand and stick to iMessage, but I'd miss out on a lot of family stuff. So... WhatsApp it is!
WhatsApp actually has a pretty nice Mac desktop app too. So has that same "syncs across devices" benefit as iMessage.