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... WhatsApp. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin. Stay updated on the latest news ... WhatsApp application without the need to download a separate application.

At long last, WhatsApp is stepping into the future with username support, letting users safeguard their privacy by reserving unique handles.

Welcome back—I’m home (and alive) after the madness of Token2049 in Singapore, which we will get to shortly. This week our focus is on India. The country is WhatsApp’s largest market when it comes to users, but there’s a local rebellion that’s gradually gaining momentum. Arattai, a homegrown messaging platform from software giant Zoho, crossed 7.5 million downloads last week as figures in India clamour for a local alternative to the Meta-owned chat app. New signups jumped from around 3,000 per day to more than 300,000. Arattai, which means ‘casual chat’ in Tamil, is not exactly new. It was first launched in 2021, but its profile is on the rise after it was endorsed by senior government officials and India’s venture capital community. Zoho itself is a unique company. It produces software for businesses and bootstrapped itself to revenues of more than $1 billion per year, as of 2022 , with offices across India, the US, Europe and other parts of Asia. Like other Zoho products, Arattai comes packed with features. It leans on WhatsApp and Telegram for basic messaging, and includes Slack-like features, video calling and more. The appeal is simple: data sovereignty. That’s a topic that is gaining

WhatsApp is testing a new threaded reply feature to organize and simplify conversations, especially in group chats. · The feature, currently in beta ( ...

India’s swadeshi rival to WhatsApp Arattai added two million new users on the last day of September. While the numbers are impressive, there are many who look askance at its prospects as a rival to WhatsApp, India’s favourite chat app. In the renewed push post Trump tariff for self-reliance, Swadeshi Arattai — meaning “chat” in Tamil — launched in 2021 by Sridhar Vembu’s Zoho has foregrounded the conversation around digital self-reliance. “India First is a powerful sentiment—and it’s exciting to finally see it in the internet space. But it’ll take more than sentiment or a new app launch to overcome the deep network effects built over decades,” said Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and former CEO of Hike. Mittal added that downloads are easy, but retention is the real battle. “For network products, that challenge is 100x harder, especially if the app is just a clone. Sentiment alone won’t move people’s networks.” Mittal should know. Hike, an instant messaging app launched in 2012, shut down in 2021 despite peaking at over 100 million users and raising funds at a valuation above $1 billion. Cred’s Kunal Shah noted on X that “network effects can’t be displaced with emotions,” though several welcomed the

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WhatsApp accounts have always been tied to a phone number, but in the past two years, we’ve seen signs that could change. Now, Meta is finally preparing to implement username support, but you’ll need to take some action first.  WhatsApp may let users reserve a username ahead of full support WhatsApp is actively developing a feature that will allow users to reserve a username. The feature was spotted in the latest beta of WhatsApp for Android by WABetaInfo. The new menu inside WhatsApp's settings. | Image Credit – WABetaInfo A new link in the app’s Settings will allow users to reserve the handle they’d like to use once username support reaches them. That would be necessary as Meta is likely to roll out the full username support gradually. That way, users will be able to get their preferred handles and avoid someone impersonating them. Catching up to the competition Ever since it was launched, WhatsApp has only allowed users to connect and register with their phone numbers. That’s convenient and makes finding people on the app very straightforward. On the other hand, it could be a security risk, especially when you need to contact people you don’t know. It’s also

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While most modern features you can think of are already available on WhatsApp, one notable omission has been native support for Live Photos and Motion Photos, which are features native to iOS and Android, respectively. Years after these capabilities were introduced, Meta is finally adding this functionality to its biggest messaging platform. Alongside this long-awaited addition of moving pictures, WhatsApp is also receiving a host of other new features and quality-of-life improvements. Also read: Use WhatsApp using double tap or Siri on Apple Watch For context, Live Photos on iOS and Motion Photos on Android are essentially a hybrid file format, combining a still image with a short video clip, similar to a GIF. Unlike most GIFs, however, they can also include sound. This format is useful for capturing more of a scene than a static shot allows, and it gives users the ability to select and export a specific frame from the motion. Share and View Live Photos on WhatsApp As announced in a blog post, Meta says WhatsApp users can now share and view these moving photos natively within the app. This works for both iPhone's Live Photos and Android's Motion Photos. It also appears that these formats will

South Africans are being cautioned to be aware of their surroundings when answering their cell phones or sending voice notes.