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WhatsApp Now Lets You Hide Your IP Address During Calls

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Apr 12, 2001
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WhatsApp has introduced a new privacy feature that lets you hide your IP address from whoever you call over the encrypted communications platform.

Whatsapp-Feature.jpg

As it stands, one-to-one calls over WhatsApp are established as a direct peer-to-peer connection between users. While this ensures the best possible voice quality, it means the connected devices must reveal their IP addresses to each other.

According to WhatsApp, the new privacy setting introduced today works differently by relaying all of your calls through WhatsApp's servers to obfuscate your location, rather than connecting you directly to the person you are calling. Meta engineers elaborated on the feature in a blog post:
Most calling products people use today have peer-to-peer connections between participants. This direct connection allows for faster data transfers and better call quality, but it also means that participants need to know each other’s IP addresses so that call data packets can be delivered to the correct device – meaning that the IP addresses are visible to both callers on a 1:1 call. IP addresses may contain information that some of our most privacy-conscious users are mindful of, such as broad geographical location or internet provider.

To address this concern, we introduced a new feature on WhatsApp that allows you to protect your IP address during calls. With this feature enabled, all your calls will be relayed through WhatsApp’s servers, ensuring that other parties in the call cannot see your IP address and subsequently deduce your general geographical location.
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WhatsApp-Calls_image.jpg


At the same time, all relayed calls through WhatsApp's servers remain end-to-end encrypted, so no-one – not even WhatsApp – can listen to them.

Before you consider using the new call relay privacy setting, WhatsApp says to bear in mind that call quality might be reduced as a result. To enable the setting, make sure you have updated to the latest version of WhatsApp, then follow these steps.
  1. In WhatsApp, tap Settings ➝ Privacy.
  2. Tap Advanced.
  3. Toggle on the switch next to Protect IP address in calls.
whatsapp-privacy-ip-address.jpg


Note that group calls are always relayed through WhatsApp's servers by default.

In June, WhatsApp added a Silence Unknown Callers feature for the encrypted messaging platform. Like the similar option in iOS, the feature is designed to automatically screen out spam, scams, and calls from unknown people for increased protection.

Article Link: WhatsApp Now Lets You Hide Your IP Address During Calls
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/11/08/whatsapp-hide-your-ip-address-during-calls/
This sounds like security theater, but worse.

Want to hide your IP address? Just tell us (and we'll tell the government or anyone else who pays us) about your "secret" call.

Why would you want to hide your IP address from the caller, but reveal literally everything about your call to WhatsApp and whoever they choose to sell your data to? If you really want to hide your IP, call from behind an actual VPN. But I'm curious what legitimate usecase you'd have for hiding your IP from the person you're calling.
 
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Does anyone know if FaceTime obfuscates the IP adresses in point-to-point calls.
 
Even with P2P WhatsApp Video Calls are horrendous in terms of quality and latency (compared to Facetime and Telegram).
 
louis^ said:
Better use threema or signal. Avoid those privacy nightmares like meta or tiktok.
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I really don't like Signal and the organization behind it. Signal really wants my phone number and wants to blurt it out to everyone. The opposite of a privacy centric messaging app.

Threema seems to be the only one actually designed properly. It's basically iMessage without the required trusting of a centralized key distribution server.

Edit: and as usual here come the Signal defenders. Ask jwz, he wrote more about it than I care to. He also co-wrote Netscape so he should have a little credibility. I had the same experience and agree with him:

jwz: Signal

When you install Signal, it asks for access to your contacts, and says very proudly, "we don't upload your contacts, it all stays on your phone." And then it spams all of your contacts who have Signal installed, without asking your first. And it shares your phone number with everyone in your...
www.jwz.org www.jwz.org

Edit 2: And ask Steve Gibson about Threema. He needs to get his ass back to work on Spinrite but he also definitely has credibility in this area. This is the most recent comments I could find, but you see what he says. Just Cmd+F Threema:
 
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louis^ said:
Better use threema or signal. Avoid those privacy nightmares like meta or tiktok.
Click to expand...
Better to use the tool that actually allows me to reach people. Neither Threema, Signal or iMessage allow me to do that in my region (most of my friends use iPhone, but even they would not use iMessage). So any improvements in Whatsapp are welcome.
 
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JCCL said:
Better to use the tool that actually allows me to reach people. Neither Threema, Signal or iMessage allow me to do that in my region (most of my friends use iPhone, but even they would not use iMessage). So any improvements in Whatsapp are welcome.
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Isn’t that the strongest vote for finding methods to use the others..? There is a reason WhatsApp is allowed in countries where secure apps are not…
 
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Hildy said:
Isn’t that the strongest vote for finding methods to use the others..? There is a reason WhatsApp is allowed in countries where secure apps are not…
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It's become too standard, and I'm not so important to influence others to change the platform of choice beyond my immediate circle. iMessage is big in US, and I use it whenever I talk with US folks (mostly business). But Europe and Latin America, Whatsapp it is!
 
JCCL said:
Better to use the tool that actually allows me to reach people. Neither Threema, Signal or iMessage allow me to do that in my region (most of my friends use iPhone, but even they would not use iMessage). So any improvements in Whatsapp are welcome.
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You can gift threema licenses. I did that, i'm fine.
 
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CarAnalogy said:
I really don't like Signal and the organization behind it. Signal really wants my phone number and wants to blurt it out to everyone. The opposite of a privacy centric messaging app.

Threema seems to be the only one actually designed properly. It's basically iMessage without the required trusting of a centralized key distribution server.
Click to expand...
They've been talking about years how they're working on using alternative IDs but I don't understand how an organization focused on privacy can use phone numbers for so long. I understand they had their early beginnings with TextSecure, but at some point it made sense to move beyond the phone number model of WhatsApp. There's zero reason to use a phone number as an identifier these days.
 
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mickobizzle said:
curious, why don't they like imessage?
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Because is platform dependant. It is quite annoying having to guess if your recipient has iPhone or not, and SMS are ancient and forgotten technology everywhere but the US (receiving SMS for example is hit and miss).
 
how can a whatsapp call be p2p? the data has to go to whatsapp first to be relayed to the other user? It's not a walkie talkie
 
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