A user can make voice and video calls and send messages (including photos, videos, voice messages, documents and their location) to another user or group of users in WhatsApp. They can hide a specific ‘chat’ using a fingerprint or Face ID lock or send ‘disappearing messages’, which automatically become invisible to users after a selected amount of time (between 1 and 90 days). They can also share a status update, which is a photo or video that is shared with selected contacts (or all contacts) and disappears after 24 hours. WhatsApp includes ‘Meta AI’, a chatbot for people to ask questions and chat with.
A user can join or create a ‘Community’ which connects multiple group chats (e.g. all WhatsApp groups relating to a specific school). They can also follow public ‘Channels’ created by people or organisations (such as a football team) who share updates like text, photos or videos.
Personal WhatsApp messages, voice/video calls and status updates are end-to-end encrypted so the contents can only be seen by the sender and the receiver (not WhatsApp or the authorities). However if a user receives an inappropriate message, they can report it to WhatsApp, which allows WhatsApp to review the message. Conversations with MetaAI are not end-to-end-encrypted, and for 18+ accounts, these conversations are analysed to improve MetaAI.
There are no parental controls on WhatsApp however various safety settings are available. For example, a user can block and report other people, block messages from unknown accounts when they exceed a high volume and silence unknown callers. If a WhatsApp user has a person’s mobile phone number, they can tell if that person is also a WhatsApp user and send them a WhatsApp message (unless blocked). However, there are some privacy settings e.g. a person can prevent others from seeing their profile photo, their ‘about’ information, status updates, when they were last online, or if they’ve read a message. A user can control who can add them to a group chat. Group admins can prevent other members from changing the group name or approving new members. It is also now possible to limit how messages and media in a group chat can be shared outside of WhatsApp. For example, by turning on “Advanced chat privacy” in a group chat, you can prevent group members from being able to save media to their device automatically.
