Trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia. We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected. The move fits into the Kremlin's aim to achieve a sovereign internet an online space cut off from western technology and foreign influence, and more vulnerable to state control.
Instagram introduced the Close Friends feature for Instagram Stories back in November 2018, and last September, we learned that WhatsApp was developing that same feature for its users. Now we've learnt that WhatsApp is also working on a Custom Lists feature for status updates, giving its users more privacy control. This revelation comes from the folks at WABetaInfo, who discovered this under-development Custom Lists feature in beta version 2.26.5.11 of WhatsApp for Android.
Called Strict Account Settings, the new lockdown-style feature is meant to prevent sophisticated cyberattacks that could be targeting journalists and public figures. Set to roll out over the coming weeks, the new feature will allow users to block attachments and media from unknown senders, as well as to silence calls from people they don't know. Additional extreme protection settings will also be available when Strict Account Settings is enabled, limiting how the application works, WhatsApp says.
The FTC said Tuesday it will appeal the November ruling in favor of Meta in its antitrust case against the social media giant. The FTC said it continues to allege that, for more than a decade, Meta Platforms Inc. has "illegally maintained a monopoly" in social networking through anticompetitive conduct "by buying the significant competitive threats it identified in Instagram and WhatsApp."
Meta's messaging app WhatsApp could soon be subject to deeper scrutiny (and punishment) under the European Commission's Digital Services Act, Reuters reports. Because the app's broadcasting feature WhatsApp Channels grew to around 51.7 million average monthly active users in the European Union in the first six months of 2025, the feature has crossed the 45-million-person barrier that lets DSA rules apply.
Google Ads may be testing the ability to subscribe to support updates via WhatsApp. Google has rolled out a new option to get real-time support case updates directly on WhatsApp, at least some folks are seeing this. Arpan Banerjee posted about this enhancement on LinkedIn and said, "A small feature, but a big boost in convenience for anyone managing Google Ads."
WhatsApp has been hit with a global outage and thousands of users are reporting issues to DownDetector and a message reads "Unexpected error occurred." A person posted on X, "Hello!! Is anyone in Argentina having problems with WhatsApp Web??? It won't connect on me, it's giving me an error." Another said: "WhatsApp is down for many users in India." Another wrote, "Global problem. Here in Chile it's down too."
For those of you that have used WhatsApp from the very start, you'll remember About was our first feature. Even before we brought the world private and secure messaging, we made it simple for you to quickly share what's up in your life. Today we're reintroducing and improving About, making it more visible, timely, and easier to use.
This has been revealed by Austrian researchers, who were able to extract phone numbers for all 3.5 billion WhatsApp users. And for around 57% of those 3.5 billion users, the researchers were also able to access their profile photos, and for another 29%, the text on their profiles. If you're wondering what black hat hacking magic trick they needed to use, well, none.
