WHATSAPP is issuing a fresh warning to all users over encryption.
The tech giant is reminding users why unencrypted chats are so risky.
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Encryption is basically a system of encoding and decoding your messages.
It means that only senders and recipients can read chats – and they can’t be viewed in transit.
Not even WhatsApp can read your messages, which makes life tricky for law enforcement.
Now WhatsApp is updating the app with a new warning that reminds users why encryption matters.
“A new footer for end-to-end encryption shows up at the bottom of your status updates, call history, chats list and devices list,” said WABetaInfo, the blog that discovered the change.
“The page that shows up when tapping the footer informs people what is secured by end-to-end encryption.
“The new footer is rolling out today and more activations are planned in the next few updates.”
The pop-up explains that lots of what you do inside WhatsApp is encrypted.
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This includes your text and voice messages, video and phone calls, sharing photos, videos, documents and your location, and status updates.
You can also find the page manually by going into the WhatsApp settings then Account > Security.
Of course, encryption isn’t a total privacy fail-safe.
It’s still possible for your messages to be leaked by a recipient, including with screen grabs.
Thankfully WhatsApp has a feature that will automatically “unsend” your old messages.
But it’s not fool-proof, so consider whether you trust the person you’re messaging.
If you want to check out new WhatsApp features before everyone else, find out how to join the beta using our guide below.
How to get WhatsApp beta
To download WhatsApp beta for your smartphone you need to go to Google Play on your Android and search for WhatsApp.
Scroll down the page until you see “Become a Beta Tester”.
Tap the “I’m In” button and then click “Join” to confirm.
Now all you have to do is wait for the update to the beta version of the app.
Joining the WhatsApp beta on iPhone is more difficult, and has limited capacity.
Follow Apple’s guide here.
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