#whatsapp

#whatsapp

Called Strict Account Settings, the new lockdown-style feature is meant to prevent sophisticated cyberattacks that could be targeting journalists and public figures. Set to roll out over the coming weeks, the new feature will allow users to block attachments and media from unknown senders, as well as to silence calls from people they don't know. Additional extreme protection settings will also be available when Strict Account Settings is enabled, limiting how the application works, WhatsApp says.

The FTC said Tuesday it will appeal the November ruling in favor of Meta in its antitrust case against the social media giant. The FTC said it continues to allege that, for more than a decade, Meta Platforms Inc. has "illegally maintained a monopoly" in social networking through anticompetitive conduct "by buying the significant competitive threats it identified in Instagram and WhatsApp."

A warning for WhatsApp users: cybercriminals have discovered an alarmingly simple way to access a user's conversations in real time by manipulating the app's device pairing or linking routine.

Google Ads may be testing the ability to subscribe to support updates via WhatsApp. Google has rolled out a new option to get real-time support case updates directly on WhatsApp, at least some folks are seeing this. Arpan Banerjee posted about this enhancement on LinkedIn and said, "A small feature, but a big boost in convenience for anyone managing Google Ads."

WhatsApp has been hit with a global outage and thousands of users are reporting issues to DownDetector and a message reads "Unexpected error occurred." A person posted on X, "Hello!! Is anyone in Argentina having problems with WhatsApp Web??? It won't connect on me, it's giving me an error." Another said: "WhatsApp is down for many users in India." Another wrote, "Global problem. Here in Chile it's down too."

For those of you that have used WhatsApp from the very start, you'll remember About was our first feature. Even before we brought the world private and secure messaging, we made it simple for you to quickly share what's up in your life. Today we're reintroducing and improving About, making it more visible, timely, and easier to use.

This has been revealed by Austrian researchers, who were able to extract phone numbers for all 3.5 billion WhatsApp users. And for around 57% of those 3.5 billion users, the researchers were also able to access their profile photos, and for another 29%, the text on their profiles. If you're wondering what black hat hacking magic trick they needed to use, well, none.

John Bryan claimed in a statement on Facebook that his messages were 'intended to be humour', adding that the media made them into something they weren't

The tech giant said it's detected and disrupted about 8 million accounts engaging in scam operations during the first half of 2025, including those associated with scam centers in areas like Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Philippines. It also took action on over 21,000 Facebook Pages and accounts that were pretending to be customer support operations that were attempting to trick people into sharing their information.

To that end, the company said it's introducing new warnings on WhatsApp when users attempt to share their screen with an unknown contact during a video call so as to prevent them from giving away sensitive information like bank details or verification codes. On Messenger, users can opt to enable a setting called "Scam detection" by navigating to Privacy & safety settings.

A federal judge has granted Meta-owned WhatsApp's request for a permanent injunction blocking Israeli cyberintelligence company NSO Group from targeting the messaging app's users. At the same time, the judge dramatically reduced the fine that NSO Group must pay to Meta. Earlier this year, a jury decided that the cyberintelligence company would have to pay Meta more than $167 million following a 2019 campaign that targeted more than 1,400 WhatsApp users, including human rights activists and journalists.

Would you want to be in a group chat with your favorite sports celebrities and athletes? You'll have your chance this fall, thanks to a collaboration between WhatsApp and OffBall. OffBall, a year-old sports media startup that focuses on careful curation for its followers, announced on Friday that it was bringing back The Chat, which it had previously conducted with sports stars such as LeBron James.

WhatsApp is attempting to solve its spam problem by putting a curb on how many messages individual users and businesses can send to unknown people without getting a response. While the app started as an easy way to send messages to personal contacts, over time, it has become more complex with groups, communities, and business messaging. With those changes, people are getting more messages than ever, and it is hard to catch up with all of them.

At the beginning of September, Infobip, a leading Cloud Communications as a Service (CPaaS) platform, and the MoneyGram Haas Formula One (F1) team announced that they were going to launch a WhatsApp-based conversational assistant at the F1 race that took place at Monza, in Italy, on September 7th. The conversational assistant, available via a Click-To-WhatsApp ad integration from Facebook and Instagram, was designed to enable the team to develop deeper connections with fans worldwide by giving them the chance to win signed race memorabilia

Samsung has fixed a critical flaw that affects its Android devices - but not before attackers found and exploited the bug, which could allow remote code execution on affected devices. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-21043, affects Android OS versions 13, 14, 15, and 16.

The letter outlined not only the improper access engineers had to WhatsApp user data, but a variety of other shortcomings, including a "failure to inventory user data," as required under privacy laws in California, the European Union, and the FTC settlement, failure to locate data storage, an absence of systems for monitoring user data access, and an inability to detect data breaches that were standard for other companies.

"When they become full-fledged teenagers, they don't want you to text them," Scott, who shares two kids with wife Naomi Scott, jokingly says. "They don't want you to text them, and if you do, it needs to be brief and you can't use punctuation, or it'll be embarrassing." "OK, so leave them alone," Brody notes, asking the "Severance" star if he could divulge his phone philosophy with his kids.

"Today, WhatsApp announced the launch of its new US brand campaign, ' highlighting why Americans deserve better than "just okay" group chats. Starring Emmy-nominated actors Adam Scott and Adam Brody, the cinematic campaign plays out in mirrored storylines that reveal the difference between group chats that fall apart and ones that truly work."

The viral post falsely claims that if you do not enable Advanced Chat Privacy, Meta's AI tools will be able to access your private conversations. This isn't true, and it misrepresents both how Meta AI works and what Advanced Chat Privacy is. The confusion seems to spawn from the fact that Meta AI can be invoked through a number of methods, including in any group chat with the @Meta AI command .

Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, who heads Amnesty International's Security Lab, described the attack in a post on X as an "advanced spyware campaign" that targeted users over the past 90 days, or since the end of May. Ó Cearbhaill described the pair of bugs as a "zero-click" attack, meaning it does not require any interaction from the victim, such as clicking a link, to compromise their device.

WhatsApp is no longer a stranger to AI integration. Two months ago, AI Message Summaries became available in the US, so you can easily catch up with your friends on chats. Now, the new feature dubbed Writing Help will make it easier and more imaginative to write messages. Using Meta AI, the feature provides users with suggested text in various tones, including professional, casual, humorous, and more.