Six ways WhatsApp provides a safe messaging experience

With cyber crime rampant, WhatsApp is providing a safe and secure experience for its users and here we list the 6 ways that it is doing so.

Know how WhatsApp offers a safe and private messaging experience. (Bloomberg)

Apart from a global reach, what users want the most from messaging apps is security of their chats and data. Various apps are doing that and WhatsApp is among them too. The difference with other is that WhatsApp has billions of users and it is the world's most used messaging app. To make sure that it keeps its users happy, WhatsApp has highlighted, time and again, how much focus it puts on providing security to them. Over and above that, the app also looks to the future and anticipates user needs even before they arise.

WhatsApp has added new layers of protection to safeguard its users from security concerns and here we list how it is spearheading safe and private messaging for users:

1. Privacy and confidentiality assured: With end-to-end encryption built in to WhatsApp, users' messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, status updates and calls are secured between and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp can read or see or listen to what is sent. Additionally, users can add the same layer of end-to-end encryption to protect their chat backups on iCloud or Google Drive, securing all messages and media in the cloud by a password or a 64-digit encryption key.

2. No Remnants of ‘View Once' messages: View Once has emerged as a convenient and trendy way to share photos and videos without leaving a permanent digital record. WhatsApp View Once messages are going to be automatically protected with screenshot blocking, so users can have greater confidence sharing sensitive messages that won't be seen or kept longer than intended. This way, WhatsApp prevents screenshots from being captured, as opposed to some other apps that alert users after a screenshot has been taken.

3. Control over your ‘online' presence: Even if being aware of users' loved ones' online presence lets them feel connected to them, there are moments when everyone wishes they could check their WhatsApp privately. WhatsApp allows users to choose who can and cannot see that they are online for those moments when they wish to keep their online presence private.

4. Sharing important information without chat backlog: Disappearing messages is an optional feature you can turn on for more privacy. Users can arrange messages to disappear for 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days after they are sent when they enable disappearing messages. Users can decide whether to enable disappearing messages for all of their chats or just a few of them.

5. Dealing with unwanted chats and spam: Unlike traditional SMS, WhatsApp provides a simple way for users to block accounts and make reports to WhatsApp if they encounter problematic messages. In addition to this, WhatsApp allows people to keep reported messages on their phones if they want to share them with fact-checkers or law enforcement officials.

6. Safeguarding account access: WhatsApp's Two Step Verification feature offers users an extra layer of security to their WhatsApp account and protects their account in the event of their SIM card being stolen or their phone being compromised by scammers who may try to use their phone number.