Whatsapp

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Whatsapp

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Basic data

developer WhatsApp Inc. / Facebook Inc.
Publishing year 2009
Current  version varies ( Android -
Google Play Store)

2.20.41 ( Android - Public Beta)
February 2020

2.20.52 ( iOS )
May 21, 2020

2.2021.4 ( Windows )
May 28, 2020

2.2021.4 ( macOS )
May 28, 2020

operating system Mobile:
Android , iOS
Desktop:
Windows 8 and newer, MacOS X 10.10 and newer
programming language Erlang
category Instant messaging
License proprietary
German speaking Yes
whatsapp.com

WhatsApp is a 2009 established instant messaging - service , which since 2014 part of Facebook Inc. 's. Via WhatsApp, users can exchange text messages, image, video and sound files as well as location information , documents and contact data between two people or in groups. The Californian company WhatsApp Inc. offers the actual mobile application program (app) called WhatsApp Messenger for various smartphone operating systems and operates the associated servers . In spring 2015, users were also able to make internet-based calls using the app. The service, which was chargeable until the beginning of 2016, but is now free, is largely responsible for replacing SMS . Important competitors are Signal , Telegram and Threema .

The company is based in Mountain View , California .

history

WhatsApp founders Brian Acton (right) and Jan Koum

The company WhatsApp Inc. was in 2009 Santa Clara , California , by Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded. The name is a pun: WhatsApp sounds like English ( "What's wrong?", "What's up?") And contains the abbreviation "What's up?" App ( application , "Application").

WhatsApp started as a simple app that published status messages that all friends could read. The developers expanded this app into an extremely successful short message service, which the US company Facebook Inc. acquired on February 19, 2014 for 19 billion US dollars - 4 billion in cash, the rest in the form of Facebook shares. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum switched to the Facebook board of directors. Due to the Facebook takeover in February 2014, data protection officers and data protection officers were often quoted in the media with the recommendation that instead of WhatsApp encrypted services should be preferred.

On November 18, 2014, WhatsApp entered into a partnership with Open Whisper Systems to develop end-to-end encryption based on the TextSecure messenger protocol . On April 5, 2016, WhatsApp published a white paper ; therefore texts, media and calls are protected by end-to-end encryption.

At the beginning of April 2015, WhatsApp had 800 million active users and was considered the fastest growing internet service in history. The rating of the service has been controversial since Facebook acquired WhatsApp Inc. The main concerns cited were concerns regarding the commercial continued use of private user data, safeguarding privacy , the informational self-determination of users and the quasi-monopoly of Facebook in the field of social networking and mobile communication ( messaging ). Some data protection officers and data protection experts recommended apps from European providers. WhatsApp sends all names and numbers from its users' phone address books to servers in the USA by default - including all contact persons who are not using the service. Therefore, in 2014 Dutch and Canadian authorities investigated data protection violations.

On January 18, 2016, it was announced that WhatsApp would be free again.

In September 2017, one of the two co-founders, Brian Acton, announced that he was leaving the company. He supports the further development of Signal , an alternative messenger service that places special emphasis on secure encryption, through a non-profit foundation in which he participates with 50 million dollars . In May 2018, the second co-founder of WhatsApp, Jan Koum , also left the group. One reason for his about-face is seen in the fact that Facebook decided to use WhatsApp for advertising after all, in order to monetize user data in this way . Corresponding announcements were made by Facebook in May 2018. Both Koum and Acton had resolutely rejected such a business model. The conflict also existed because WhatsApp feared a weakening of cryptography in this context.

function

WhatsApp chat

In order to use WhatsApp, you need to register after installing your own mobile phone number. The globally unique mobile phone number takes on the function of user identification and is therefore not freely selectable. According to an article on t-online.de , WhatsApp recognizes the name of the new user in most cases through saved phone address book entries read out by default from other users and the app also shows this shortly after typing in one's own phone number. According to the WhatsApp FAQ, only the phone numbers are transferred. It is therefore more likely that the username entered in the operating system will be adopted.

At the end of the registration of a WhatsApp account, an activation code is usually transmitted via SMS to verify the mobile phone number. If the WhatsApp server cannot deliver an SMS, the activation code is instead transmitted by telephone announcement. You don't necessarily have to use the number of the cell phone from which you want to use WhatsApp. If you don't want to reveal your mobile phone number, you can use your landline number or the number of a second mobile phone.

In contrast to SMS, WhatsApp is not a separate service of a cellular provider, but uses Internet access . The application belongs to the group of instant messaging programs. The app is based on the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) with proprietary extensions, which is limited to the use of WhatsApp's own server. WhatsApp is available for the Android , iOS , Symbian , Nokia Series 40 , Windows Phone and MeeGo operating systems. Alternatively, an Android emulator can be used to use WhatsApp in the mobile interface. However, this does not allow parallel operation with a smartphone and a PC, as the number has to be registered again. A telephone number is also required for the registration SMS. WhatsApp can also only be used on the Firefox OS mobile operating system with a special web app not officially supported by WhatsApp . Here, however, the user has to accept some disadvantages.

In addition to sending text and voice messages, it is possible to exchange photo, contact, video and audio files as well as to communicate your own location, which was determined using GPS , for example . Since the end of March 2015, it has also been possible to make calls ( Voice over IP ) via WhatsApp using an Android smartphone . This results in around 1.5 megabytes per minute. This feature was made available for iOS on April 21, 2015 and for Windows Phone on June 24, 2015 .

At the end of October 2017, WhatsApp made its own emojis available for Android, after Apple had previously used the pictograms. WhatsApp's emojis are based heavily on Apple's to make it easy for users to switch.

A dark mode (user interface with a dark background) has been available for both iOS and Android since March 3, 2020 .

From 2019 WhatsApp wants to display advertising in the status area.

WhatsApp Web

The browser-supported version WhatsApp Web was officially presented on January 21, 2015 . This website makes it possible to access existing messages via internet access on a PC / notebook and to compose new ones. To do this, a QR code must be scanned by the smartphone , which establishes a connection via the WhatsApp server with the smartphone via a WebSocket . To use WhatsApp Web , the smartphone must be switched on and connected to the Internet. While initially only the Google Chrome browser was officially supported, compatibility was extended to include the Opera and Firefox browsers at the end of February 2015 . WhatsApp Web has also been available for iOS devices since August 20, 2015 .

WhatsApp Web can be used by third parties to track all communications from a WhatsApp account in real time and to research contacts without having to install monitoring software on the mobile phone. In 2020, for example, it became known that the Federal Criminal Police Office has been using this function for years.

WhatsApp desktop

On May 10, 2016, WhatsApp introduced the desktop app for Windows 8+ and OS X Mavericks (10.9). Similar to WhatsApp Web, the desktop app is an extension of the phone app and can be used after scanning a QR code with the mobile phone on which WhatsApp is installed. Unlike the web-based WhatsApp version, the desktop app must be installed before starting and then offers the full range of functions. Among other things, desktop notifications and keyboard shortcuts have been added as improvements over the web interface.

Video telephony

In November 2016, following weeks of been beta versions , the video telephony made for Android, iOS and Windows. This makes it possible to make video calls. This can result in up to six megabytes of data per minute.

WhatsApp Business

WhatsApp Business icon.png

In January 2018, the WhatsApp Business app was made available as a communication channel for small companies and their customers in the Playstore, initially in the USA, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico and Indonesia. The beta test program for pre-registered Android users in Germany started on January 25, 2018. In the meantime, the Android version of the business app has been released to the public in the Play Store.

WhatsApp Payments

On February 8, 2018, WhatsApp integrated a payment function with which users can send and receive payments. To do this, it is first necessary to deposit a reference account with a bank. This function is initially only available to users in India.

criticism

WhatsApp has been criticized for its general terms and conditions, among other things, which allow the company to use users' media for commercial purposes.

At the end of November 2015, it became known that the WhatsApp client for Android was blocking links to the website of the competitor messenger Telegram - telegram.org , telegram.me and telegram.com - within the app and specifically preventing the link from being copied.

Since the beginning of November 2019, WhatsApp seems to have been systematically banning all members of groups with certain names. After various investigations, it has been found that most of them have the same reason for being blocked: Membership in a WhatsApp group with a suspicious or malicious name. It seems irrelevant how many users the group has or who is responsible for the name. Attempts to contact WhatsApp in this regard are ignored or receive an automatic response with vague information. Members therefore have to change their phone number if they want to continue using WhatsApp, which is a significant effort. If necessary, you can restore your chat history from a backup, but it is not clear how it will then proceed, because they will probably be blocked again.

safety

A security flaw was discovered in May 2011 that made it possible for unauthorized persons to take over user accounts. Conversations made in WhatsApp were sent and received unencrypted in clear text , which is why they could be read by unauthorized persons. Since August 2012, user calls have been encrypted.

On January 6, 2012, a stranger published a website that made it possible to change the status of any WhatsApp user, provided that their phone number was known. According to the hacker, only one of many security holes was exploited. On January 9, 2012, WhatsApp Inc. reported that the affected website would be permanently deleted, but blocking the website's IP address was the only action taken. In response, the hacker made a Windows application available for download that could bypass this blockage. A few days later, on January 13, 2012, Apple removed WhatsApp from its app store for four days without giving a reason , until a new app version was made available.

In September 2012 it became known that third-party accounts with easily accessible information could be hijacked. All that is needed under Android is the user's phone number and the serial number ( IMEI ) of their smartphone, and on iOS, the MAC address of the WLAN interface. The password for the WhatsApp account can be calculated from both data with a simple script. A hacker had created a website that could be used to send messages from other accounts. The security gap, which had now been closed, reappeared in November 2012.

On July 24, 2013, the Berlin-based security company Curesec published a security flaw that makes it possible to obtain payment data for Google Wallet and PayPal in the payment process of the chat application .

On October 8, 2013, a group of hackers called the Palestinian Hackers succeeded in manipulating a DNS server in such a way that it returned an incorrect IP address for the WhatsApp domain ( DNS spoofing ).

Thijs Alkemade, the chief developer of the instant messaging client Adium , expressed the opinion in October 2013 that the encryption of the messages must be regarded as too weak and as compromised , since the weak algorithm RC4 with the same key, the same initialization vector and the same in both communication directions the same HMAC key was used.

All WhatsApp messages are saved on the smartphone in a database encrypted with Crypt . As a result, the messages are now protected from unauthorized access by a temporary AES key . Until mid-2014, this was still a general AES key assigned by WhatsApp that changed regularly. After this became publicly known, WhatsApp closed this gap and assigned each device its own key. In theory, this would allow other apps to access the contents of the WhatsApp database.

In June 2015 it was officially announced for the first time that American authorities would be able to read WhatsApp messages. This was preceded by raids by the Belgian police against suspected terrorists who had been wiretapped with the help of the US authorities.

On April 5, 2016, the latest version of WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption , which is confirmed to the user after scanning a QR code . The messages and calls can only be decrypted and read by the sender and recipient of the message. However, since WhatsApp is proprietary software , it is not possible to check whether secure encryption has actually been implemented or whether potential backdoors have been built in.

The German Federal Intelligence Service named WhatsApp 2016 as an example of the fact that "encryption techniques ... are now integrated into most communication services as standard", which "greatly affects the identification of users relevant to the intelligence service and the content-related development of the associated communication [...]".

On January 13, 2017, it was published on the Guardian website that the German security researcher Tobias Boelter found out that WhatsApp automatically resends messages when it sends messages to recipients who are not currently online if the sender has a new public key in the meantime of the recipient. In this case, however, it is no longer guaranteed that the recipient of this resent message is actually the intended recipient. If WhatsApp specifically assigns a new key to a user and thus triggers the resending of a message to a recipient specified by WhatsApp, this can enable governments, for example, to receive every new message that is sent again. Only the sender is informed about the change of the public key, if so set in the messenger, but not the recipient. According to the Guardian, this represents a very significant security gap. WhatsApp said it was a "design decision" that prevented millions of messages from being lost. Moxie Marlinspike, the developer of the signal protocol, described WhatsApp's handling of unsent messages when switching phones as an "acceptable trade-off " and contradicted the claim that it was a backdoor . Well-known security researchers criticized the Guardian's reporting in an open letter as irresponsible and criticized the fact that the reporters had not obtained expert opinions.

On January 15, 2017, a team of researchers from the Ruhr University Bochum published a security analysis of the group chat protocols from WhatsApp, Signal and Threema . Among other shortcomings, they found that ultimately the WhatsApp servers can control the membership of users in groups, so that a server can add any user (e.g. itself) to groups and thus break the confidentiality of future messages. Although these manipulations of membership can be detected by the user, this represents a restriction of end-to-end security.

Another scientific paper by three researchers from the Ruhr-Universität-Bochum at the beginning of 2018 also drew attention to weaknesses in the end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp group chats.

On October 10, 2018, the Heise specialist portal reported a security vulnerability that enables attackers to hijack a smartphone with a single video call. All WhatsApp users were asked to check whether they were using the latest version of the messenger. All versions published since September 28th were classified as "safe".

privacy

In May 2012, Stiftung Warentest criticized the app's data transmission behavior, as it transmits all stored phone numbers (which are used as user IDs on WhatsApp) to the WhatsApp server unencrypted, and awarded the judgment “very critical”. In a quick test in February 2014, the app was also rated “very critical” in the area of ​​data protection.

Dutch and Canadian authorities are investigating the company for breach of data protection regulations. WhatsApp also accesses and saves information about non-users of the service. In addition, the security of the messages remains uncertain.

In November 2014 the “read” function was introduced. So you can see from the blue check marks that the recipient has read the message. It was also announced in the same month that the app would receive end-to-end encryption in the next versions , which would make it practically impossible to read the messages. The same open source protocol that was already implemented in Messenger Signal is used . However, future WhatsApp versions will remain proprietary , which means that independent source code analysis is not possible. A study by Heise online in April 2015 indicates that messages between Android devices are actually transmitted end-to-end encrypted, at least in the cases examined, whereas messages from or to iPhones are not. The user has no way of finding out whether a message is being transmitted end-to-end encrypted or not.

In April 2015 it was announced that WhatsApp version 2.12.45 logs all calls made via the app without being asked and that these remain in the local memory permanently. The manufacturer then stated that it was a purely internal version that was not made available for download in any official app store. A call recording does not take place with the official versions.

Transfer of user data to Facebook

With the data protection declaration of August 25, 2016, WhatsApp grants itself the right to regularly pass on the phone numbers of contacts in the user's address book to Facebook . These telephone numbers as well as other data such as the usage time are used by the parent company Facebook u. a. the personalization of advertising. Users can prohibit this personalization, but not the collection and dissemination of their own data and data of third parties. Consumer advocates consider this to be inadmissible. On September 27, 2016, the Hamburg data protection officer Johannes Caspar prohibited Facebook from using and forwarding WhatsApp data. Facebook has not obtained the clear consent of WhatsApp users to pass on and use the data. Previously stored data should be deleted. Since Facebook's German business is managed from Hamburg, Caspar has the responsibility to enforce German data protection law against Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp. Facebook announced that it would appeal the decision. The Hamburg Higher Administrative Court confirmed the order in March 2018. With the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation, however, responsibility passed to Ireland, and WhatsApp has started to transfer data to Facebook.

Although Mark Zuckerberg denied access to WhatsApp content from Facebook's pages, this possibility exists. iOS apps are in a sandbox separated from the operating system and from each other, but there is an exception for apps from the same developer: programs can share a folder within the same “app group”. The “WhatsApp” app became part of the Facebook app group after Facebook was bought up and can exchange data with apps in the group.com.facebook.family directory. On an unlocked iPhone, phone numbers, names, time stamps and message contents, including references to attachments, can be read out in plain text from the local WhatsApp database.

Illegal use and ability of users to issue a warning

If certain criteria are observed, the use of WhatsApp can even be illegal. In March 2018, the Thuringian data protection officer Lutz Hasse warned against the illegal disclosure of contact details. By using the service, the user is forced to share all contacts in his address book with WhatsApp. Facebook then processes this further and can create user profiles. According to Hasse, this release is illegal unless there is a written declaration of consent from all persons in the contact book. Accordingly, over 99% of all WhatsApp users act illegally. Furthermore, Hasse warned against disclosing personal data via the messenger. B. not suitable for use in schools.

In a decision by the Bad Hersfeld Local Court in March 2017, after a detailed assessment, the court came to the conclusion that the use of WhatsApp continuously transmitted data from the smartphone address book to the company. Users who allow this must have permission to do so from the contacts in their own telephone address book, or they commit a criminal act that can be the basis for a chargeable warning. However, this fact only applies to commercial use with a spam character.

Lawsuits by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations against WhatsApp

Inadequate terms and conditions and insufficient imprint

The Federation of German Consumer Organizations successfully sued WhatsApp in 2014 at the Berlin Regional Court because the general terms and conditions of the messaging service were only available in English. In addition, there was a complaint about the inadequate imprint, which had neither an address nor a telephone number.

WhatsApp then appealed. On April 8, 2016, the Berlin Court of Appeal passed its judgment, against which no appeal can be lodged. It confirmed the first instance judgment and obliged WhatsApp to use German-language terms and conditions. The company must pay a fine of up to € 250,000 for each violation. The judges also criticized the lack of information on contact options on the WhatsApp page.

Unlawful collection and disclosure of data

In January 2017, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) filed another lawsuit against WhatsApp before the Berlin Regional Court. In this case, the issue is that the messenger service collects data from its users, sometimes illegally, and then stores it and passes it on to Facebook, which is now to be avoided. It was also required that all user data previously passed on to Facebook must be deleted. In this context, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations also wants to take action against eight clauses from the General Terms and Conditions. So z. B. called the reservation of rights to the transmission of advertising material without the consent of WhatsApp users from the Facebook group of companies. see also: shadow profile

Availability

WhatsApp can be obtained through the official sales channel of the respective platforms. WhatsApp is available for iOS , Android , Windows Phone , Blackberry , the Nokia S60, Windows and macOS . The messaging service has announced that it will end its support for numerous older mobile operating systems on December 31, 2016. This applies to Blackberry (including Blackberry 10), Nokia 40 series and Symbian S60 systems , Android versions 2.1 (Éclair) and 2.2 (Froyo) and version 7.1 of Windows Phone. On Blackberry smartphones with OS 10 - with the help of the Android emulator integrated in the operating system - WhatsApp can be used indirectly after December 31, 2016. However, this usage period for old mobile devices and their older operating systems was extended up to and including June 30, 2017 and finally ended on July 19, 2017, so that only Android, iPhone and Windows Phone are supported. Support for Windows Phones will also be completely discontinued from December 31, 2019.

WhatsApp's Terms of Use include an age limit. The use of WhatsApp is only permitted if the user is at least 16 years old, provided it is a user residing in a country in the so-called European region (this includes the European Union , Switzerland , Norway , Vatican City as well as their territories ) or is at least 13 years old, provided that the user resides outside the European Region. While the age limit for users of at least 13 years of age already existed from the start, the age limit for users within the European Region was raised in May 2018 as part of the introduction of stricter data protection regulations by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When installing the software, the user not only has to confirm compliance with the terms of use, but there is also an express query in which it has to be confirmed that the user meets the age requirements for using the program. The information provided by the user is not checked. If the information is incorrect, there is a violation of the WhatsApp Terms of Use and the use of the program and the associated network infrastructure and is illegal. WhatsApp offers a free service for parents with which parents can have their children's WhatsApp accounts blocked if they do not meet the age requirements for using the program.

meaning

Development of user numbers in Germany until 2014

In April 2014, more than 20 billion messages were sent and 44 billion messages received via WhatsApp every day, the latter messages often being delivered to several recipients via the group function. According to Focus magazine , around 42.9% of the Android users surveyed made use of WhatsApp Messenger in September 2012. According to its own information, WhatsApp has more than 30 million active users in Germany as of January 2014.

While the number of users worldwide was 600 million in August 2014, it rose to one billion by the beginning of February 2016, sending 42 billion messages, 1.6 billion photos and 250 million videos every day. By 2019, the number of users rose to 1.5 billion people and the number of messages sent daily to over 65 billion. In Germany, 96% of young people use WhatsApp.

With the establishment of WhatsApp, the volume of text messages fell. For 2012, the Swiss mobile operator Swisscom recorded a year-on-year decline in text messages sent by 10 to 65 million due to the increased use of WhatsApp and similar apps. In Germany, too, the use of SMS has steadily decreased. The number of SMS sent annually fell from 59.8 billion (2012) to 16.6 billion (2015).

In February 2020, the company announced that it had over 2 billion users worldwide.

Modified WhatsApp clients

From the beginning of 2012 Mounib Al Rifai ( Rafalense ) published a modified WhatsApp client for Android under the name WhatsApp + or WhatsApp Plus , with which additional functions such as changing the theme and extended privacy options were made possible. In July 2013, WhatsApp Inc. obtained the removal of a topic in the developer forum XDA Developers by means of a DMCA request , but downloading and using the client were still possible via alternative channels, including Google+ . In January 2015, the company obtained Rifai's cessation of development of the alternative client by means of a cease and desist declaration. Some WhatsApp + users were temporarily locked out of the service if they continued to use the alternative client.

After WhatsApp + was discontinued , many other developers published their own modifications, which were mainly based on Rifai's developments. The Open WhatsApp Project was another open source re-implementation of the WhatsApp client software by a group independent of WhatsApp, which has since been discontinued.

There are no longer any functioning alternative clients. Since the source code of Whatsapp will not be published, this will probably not be possible in the future either without considerable effort.

Protocol channels

WhatsApp communicates via TCP port 5222 (see also Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol ) to receive and send messages. However, images are not exchanged via this communication channel, but via port 80 (HTTP) and the server s.whatsapp.net . Both communication paths must be taken into account when configuring a firewall or an Internet filter.

Lock

WhatsApp has been permanently blocked by the state in China since September 2017 . In Togo , Brazil and Sri Lanka , access was temporarily restricted during political phases of unrest, but is now available again there.

See also

literature

  • Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection Saarland (Ed.): Messenger services, WhatsApp & Co - what consumers should know. Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection, Saarbrücken 2016, DNB 1104297329 .
  • Christian Immler : Make the most of WhatsApp. Markt + Technik, Burgthann 2018, ISBN 978-3-95982-058-5 .
  • Anja Schmid: WhatsApp: Get in - use - move. Bildner, Passau 2015, ISBN 978-3-8328-0161-8 .
  • Nils Bachmann a. a .: How WhatsApp rules everyday life. An empirical study on the ambivalent handling of messenger services. Reguvis Bundesanzeiger-Verlag, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-8462-1039-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

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  2. ↑ Download page for Android. In: whatsapp.com. Retrieved January 13, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Preview page for iOS. In: App Store (iOS) . Retrieved May 28, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Version number and release date for Windows. In: Chip Online . Retrieved May 28, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Version number and release date for macOS. In: Chip Online . Retrieved May 28, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Download WhatsApp for Mac or Windows PC. In: whatsapp.com. Retrieved January 13, 2020 .
  7. ↑ The creeping decline of SMS. Welt Online , February 1, 2016, accessed March 20, 2018 .
  8. ↑ More changes to forwarding .
  9. ↑ SMS replacement: The mysterious story of WhatsApp ( Memento from April 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), ftd from December 19, 2012, accessed on November 21, 2012
  10. ↑ WhatsApp is becoming more like Snapchat - new status updates from February 21, 2017
  11. ↑ a b Billion takeover: Facebook buys competitor WhatsApp , spiegel.de
  12. ↑ Facebook takes over WhatsApp . Daily news .
  13. ↑ Open Whisper Systems partners with WhatsApp to provide end-to-end encryption . Blog entry WhisperSystems, November 18, 2014.
  14. ↑ WhatsApp Encryption Overview - Technical white paper .
  15. ↑ WhatsApp with 800 million active users. Heise online, April 18, 2015, accessed on April 19, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Benedikt Fuest, Thomas Jüngling and Tina Kaiser: WhatsApp users fear analysis of their data . In: Die Welt , February 23, 2014, accessed on February 23, 2014
  17. ↑ WhatsApp completely free again: Founder announces big innovation. Chip.de, accessed on January 18, 2016 .
  18. ↑ WhatsApp co-founder Acton leaves. heise.de, accessed on September 18, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Brian Acton: Whatsapp co-founder is now investing in Signal .
  20. ↑ Whatsapp gets advertising: This is how Facebook wants to make money with Messenger .
  21. ↑ Whatsapp throws its principles overboard - and switches advertising .
  22. ↑ Michelle Fox: WhatsApp will be 'more open' to advertisers, says Facebook Messaging head . 1st May 2018.
  23. ↑ Why we don't sell ads .
  24. ↑ WhatsApp founder plans to leave after broad clashes with parent Facebook .
  25. ↑ Melanie Ulrich: Not everyone is allowed to use WhatsApp . In: t-online , August 7, 2014, quote: “After starting WhatsApp for the first time, you need to register with your own telephone number. Many users are surprised to find that before they give their name, the app shows it. This is because WhatsApp reads, compares and saves the users' phone book entries by default. The name and number were then transmitted beforehand by another user. "
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  27. ↑ WhatsApp? Not without risks. (No longer available online.) In: Freedom of Thought. March 22, 2011, archived from the original on June 26, 2015 ; Retrieved July 10, 2017 .
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  31. ↑ WhatsApp can now also be used on the Firefox OS mobile phone with Wassap. In: OnSoftware. Retrieved February 25, 2014 .
  32. ↑ Rainer Schuldt: WhatsApp: Call function appeared in the new beta. Computerbild.de, May 12, 2014, accessed June 13, 2014 .
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  34. ↑ WhatsApp Call officially for Windows. (No longer available online.) In: chip.de. June 24, 2015, archived from the original on June 27, 2015 ; Retrieved June 28, 2015 .
  35. ↑ Whatsapp now has its own emoji - and they look familiar to us . In: stern.de . October 6, 2017 ( online [accessed November 4, 2017]).
  36. ↑ Helene Flachsenberg, bento: Everyone hates the new WhatsApp emojis - but rightly? ( Online [accessed November 4, 2017]).
  37. ↑ Advertising on WhatsApp: Now money is made! heise.de
  38. ↑ WhatsApp Web. Announcement on the official WhatsApp blog. January 21, 2015, accessed January 21, 2015 .
  39. ↑ Whatsapp gets web client. Heise online, January 21, 2015, accessed on January 21, 2015 .
  40. ↑ WhatsApp Web now also for Firefox and Opera. computerbase.de, February 26, 2015, accessed on February 26, 2015 .
  41. ↑ Jörn Brien: WhatsApp Web for the iPhone: Finally writing messages on the computer. t3n.de, August 20, 2015, accessed on August 20, 2015 .
  42. ↑ Markus Weidner: WhatsApp Web for the iPhone is here: How to activate the function . Report at Teltarif.de from August 20, 2015.
  43. ↑ tagesschau.de: BKA can read WhatsApp on messenger service. Retrieved July 21, 2020 .
  44. ↑ We introduce - the WhatsApp desktop app . In: WhatsApp Blog , accessed on May 14, 2016
  45. ↑ WhatsApp enables video telephony . In: computerbild.de , accessed on November 22, 2016.
  46. ↑ WhatsApp wants to make communication with customers easier for companies. "WhatsApp Business". ( Memento from January 23, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Zeit-online January 18, 2018,
  47. ↑ WhatsApp Business App is available for Android »Whatsapp Business Marketing . In: Whatsapp Business Marketing . February 4, 2018 ( online [accessed February 5, 2018]). WhatsApp Business App is available for Android »Whatsapp Business Marketing ( Memento from February 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  48. ↑ WhatsApp Payment discovered in India »Whatsapp Business Marketing . In: Whatsapp Business Marketing . February 8, 2018 ( online [accessed February 8, 2018]). WhatsApp Payment discovered in India »Whatsapp Business Marketing ( Memento from February 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  49. ↑ nck / AFP: Takeover by Facebook: Data protection activist calls for a boycott of WhatsApp . In: spiegel.de , February 21, 2014, accessed on February 21, 2014
  50. ↑ Away from WhatsApp - but where to? In: Die Zeit , February 20, 2014
  51. ↑ WhatsApp is blocking links to a competing messenger app. November 30, 2015, accessed on December 3, 2015 (English).
  52. ↑ (Update: Smoking Gun) WhatsApp Is Blocking Telegram Links In Its Android App. December 2, 2015, accessed December 3, 2015 .
  53. ↑ Simone Finkel: Numerous WhatsApp accounts blocked without warning: which mistakes you should absolutely avoid. Retrieved December 3, 2019 .
  54. ↑ WhatsApp blocks some users because of group names. November 12, 2019, accessed on December 3, 2019 (German).
  55. ↑ WhatsApp deleted users “irrevocably” - they had done nothing wrong. November 16, 2019, accessed December 3, 2019 .
  56. ↑ r / whatsapp - Banned from whatsapp for "ch * ld p * rn" joke. Retrieved December 3, 2019 (American English).
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