WhatsApp once again has plans for satisfying its over 2 billion users. The world’s most famous instant messaging app never ceases to amaze us, and it’s now preparing a feature for allowing users to fully encrypt the backups of their discussions sent to Google Drive or iCloud from Apple, as the platform itself revealed.
The new functionality will begin rolling out for Android and iOS users in the following weeks. An encryption key will allow the backups to be read. Users will also have to save a 64-digit encryption key, or they’ll just have to set a password.
A serious technical challenge
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, declared as quoted by The Verge:
WhatsApp is the first global messaging service at this scale to offer end-to-end encrypted messaging and backups, and getting there was a really hard technical challenge that required an entirely new framework for key storage and cloud storage across operating systems.
Will Cathcart, who is the head of WhatsApp, declared as also cited by The Verge:
We expect to get criticized by some for this,
That’s not new for us … I believe strongly that governments should be pushing us to have more security and not do the opposite.
However, not everything is fine and dandy when it comes to WhatsApp. The instant messaging service will stop working for a number of 43 phone models in November. However, the models are pretty much only completely obsolete devices, and any phone released nowadays, whether it’s a flagship or just an entry-level gadget, is capable of running WhatsApp.
Feel free to tell us in a comment below how the recent changes of WhatsApp will impact you and if you’ll feel more comfortable backing up your files. We’re glad to read as many comments as possible!