We were all busy shaking our heads and shaking fists in anger over WhatsApp over the new terms of use. The problem, however, is that these aren’t the only changes being made to WhatsApp. The negative response to the Terms of Service almost overshadowed some commendable scheduled updates to popular posts.
Among the multitude of upcoming updates, it is worth highlighting a new feature that allows us to perform encrypted remote backups. Right now, backups are WhatsApp’s weak link.
While chat messages are protected through the use of end-to-end encryption backups, the backups are typically not encrypted. This applies to both the backups made on your devices and the most important Google Drive backups.
Of course, Google ends up encrypting the information, but anyone with access to your Google Drive account can access your data and read your chats. All law enforcement or government have to do is wait for your latest backup and subpoena Google and they would have just approved the end-to-end encryption touted by WhatsApp.
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In fact, they don’t even have to go to Google. All it takes is access to their number and governments, even the dishonest or oppressive can get it easily. Then they can just reinstall WhatsApp, enter the OTP that will reach the new phone, restore your backup and read your messages, even previous messages.
According to WABetaInfo, this will soon be a thing of the past. In the near future, you will be given an option to configure encrypted backups. For this, to work you need to choose a password. Then your chats will be encrypted with this password. If you want to restore your backups, you will need to enter the password. Otherwise, you will not be able to restore your previous chats. Of course, the rogue nation police won’t have any concerns about beating up your password.
Another big update will finally make it possible to switch between iOS and Android. There is evidence that many wretched Apple users are stuck on this platform as it means the loss of their message history. That explains why some people keep buying iPhones. I’m kidding, but it’s true that you can’t switch to or from Android to or from an iOS device without losing your history.
Soon you will be able to migrate between iOS and Android
Now it seems that the method used to make this possible is the same technology that WhatsApp is actually using to actually support multiple devices.
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According to WABetaInfo, you must first sync your messages with the cloud so that you can move your chats to another device. Then you can add a new device. Both new and old devices are synchronized.
Information about compatibility with different devices
Multi-device compatibility brings a number of complications, including removing the chat.
Specifically, what happens when I delete a chat on a device?
There are three rules for answering this question:
- If you delete a message on one device, the same chat on another device will not be deleted, even if they are synced
- If you delete a message using the “Delete All” option, it will be deleted from each paired device
- If you choose to delete for me, the message will not be deleted on the paired devices, only on the current device.
Device syncing is just as dangerous as WhatsApp Web in terms of privacy. It seems that WhatsApp is aware of the possibility that someone is secretly linking their device to their account and starting to spy on you. Maybe a jealous spouse.
To prevent this potential abuse, you will be notified if your account is linked to multiple devices. You also have the option to unlink these devices.
Few more changes
WhatsApp has also started payments in Brazil. This has the potential to be great, but it all depends on how the Brazilian government reacts.
The Indian government was startled by the monopoly potential of WhatsApp payments and quickly tried to neutralize them.
Another interesting development is a feature that allows you to review your voice messages before they are sent. Why the hell that just came out is incomprehensible to me.
We have all mistakenly sent imperfect audio messages because there really is no way to verify them. Lift your finger and WhatsApp pulls the trigger.
