Brazilian outlet Mac Magazine today reported (Google Translate) on a newly-discovered privacy bug (it affects all iOS 11 versions, including the upcoming iOS 11.3 update) that allows Siri to read hidden notifications from messaging apps on a locked device.
WhatsApp raises the limit for revoking mistakenly sent messages to more than an hour
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has quietly extended the limit for the Delete For Everyone feature.
WhatsApp is testing person-to-person payments in India
Facebook-owned service WhatsApp is testing a new person-to-person payments feature with its employees in India, where the app enjoys a large base of 200 million users and is by far the most popular messaging service in the country.
WhatsApp is testing advanced spam detection system that’ll notify you of hoax messages
In addition to testing the ability to cross-post your Instagram Stories to WhatsApp, the WhatsApp team is working on other potential enhancements such as a new spam-detection system designed to help warn users about suspected hoax messages.
WhatsApp unveils accounts for businesses
The WhatsApp messaging platform appears to be inching closer to a viable revenue plan with all-new accounts for businesses available starting today via the new WhatsApp Business app.
Instagram testing ability to cross-post Stories to WhatsApp
Instagram has begun allowing some users to cross-post their Stories to WhatsApp, reports TechCrunch. The Facebook-owned company has confirmed to the site that it's testing a new feature that allows users to post their Instagram Stories to WhatsApp as a Status.
WhatsApp adds inline YouTube playback with PiP support & other perks
Aside from other enhancements, the popular messaging app WhatsApp for iPhone has gained the ability to watch received YouTube videos inline or in a handy Picture-in-Picture mode.
Add new privacy and aesthetic options to WhatsApp Messenger with ABetterPrivacyforWhatsApp
WhatsApp Messenger is one of the most popular third-party messaging platforms used on the iOS platform today, but there are countless ways it could be improved.
With a new free jailbreak tweak called ABetterPrivacyforWhatsApp, iOS developer CydiaGeek provides jailbroken WhatsApp Messenger users with the means of customizing their experience, allowing for better privacy and aesthetics in the app.
WhatsApp gains chat pinning, comprehensive file sharing & more in latest update
As part of a broader set of capabilities recently teased for the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging platform, the app has now gained a trio of new features in the latest update. WhatsApp version 2.17.40 for iOS brings a chat pinning feature, multi-format file sharing and other improvements.
With the pinning feature, you can make it so your favorite chats remain at the top of the list, so you can quickly find them. To use this feature, just swipe right on a chat in the conversation list, then tap a Pin or Unpin option.
The app has also expanded the file sharing feature, which now allows you to share any type of file with one or more recipients. To send files of any type, open a chat, tap the plus icon at the bottom then choose the Document option.
In the popup menu, select your favorite storage provider like iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive and so forth (any app that includes an iOS Document Provider extension should be available from the menu).
And lastly, when you receive multiple photos the app now lets you tap and hold on the group of photos to quickly forward or delete all of them in one fell swoop.
Download WhatsApp for iPhone, iPad and iPod for free from App Store.
Social Downloader lets you download media from social networking apps
Chances are you'll see a photo or video you like as you peruse various social networking apps on your iPhone from time to time, but not all services will let you save them to your device.
A new jailbreak tweak called Social Downloader by iOS developer Elias will grant you access to saving just about any image or video from various social networking apps.
WAStatusVolume brings a WhatsApp-inspired volume HUD to iOS
The jailbreak community has brought forth a myriad of different solutions for replacing the ugly stock volume HUD in iOS, but one of my favorites so far is a new jailbreak tweak dubbed WAStatusVolume by iOS developer midkin.
This tweak takes a WhatsApp Messenger-styled approach to making the volume HUD experience better by taking the same volume indicator you’d normally see in the WhatsApp Messenger app and making it available system-wide.
WhatsApp quietly added encryption to iCloud backups in late 2016
WhatsApp last year closed an important security loophole by adding encryption to users' chat backups stored in iCloud. Before the change, hackers could theoretically gain access to WhatsApp chat archives in iCloud using third-party forensic tools to access underlying messages in a readable form.
Rather than rely on iCloud Drive to protect customer data, the Facebook-owned company has added a unique encryption key created by the WhatsApp app.
A spokesperson confirmed iCloud backups are now being encrypted, telling Forbes: “When a user backs up their chats through WhatsApp to iCloud, the backup files are sent encrypted.”
Although Apple holds the encryption keys for iCloud, it's up to app makers to use encryption when sending user data to iCloud. According to TechCrunch, a Russian company called Oxygen Forensics, which supplies mobile and cloud hacking tools, was able to generate encryption keys for WhatsApp's iCloud backups.
The workaround requires that an attacker have access to a SIM card with the same mobile number that the app uses to send a verification code to generate the encryption key for the iCloud backup. Of course, Oxygen still needs a user's Apple ID and password to gain access to their iCloud user space in the first place.
“Then, using the associated SIM, Oxygen said it can generate the encryption key for decrypting the data by passing the verification process again,” explains TechCrunch. Forbes suggests the method could be used by police in possession of a device where the WhatsApp account has been deleted but iCloud backups have not been wiped.
https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/861569977681412096
In other words, after realizing that forensic tools could be used to download encrypted WhatsApp data from iCloud backups in a readable form, WhatsApp has beefed up security and quietly rolled out encryption for iCloud backups last year.
You can backup your entire WhatsApp chat archive to iCloud by tapping the Settings tab in the lower-right corner of the app. Now tap Chats, then Chat Backup and finally hit Back Up Now.
By the way, WhatsApp should update the wording of the Chat Backup screen because it states, somewhat confusingly, that “media and message you back up are not protected by WhatsApp end-to-end encryption while in iCloud.”