The app is withdrawing support for a list of devices starting November 1, 2021.
WhatsApp has introduced a feature which would allow one to view status updates from Business accounts.
Contents
How To View It
According to a screenshot acquired by Wabetainfo, one can click on a business account profile.
Two options will appear- one reading “View profile photo” and the other “View status”.
If there is a new status update from the business account, it can be viewed directly by tapping the profile picture and selecting the “View status” option.
Status Updates
Do note that the old way to view status updates from Business accounts is not being replaced here.
Those status updates can be viewed from the Status tab.
Currently, there is no option to view status updates from “normal” WhatsApp accounts by visiting “Contact Info”:
However, this feature could be released in a future update.
Pulling Support From Older Devices
The app is withdrawing support for a list of devices starting November 1, 2021.
These are Android phones that are running on Android 4.0.3 or lower, and Apple iPhones that are running on iOS 9 or older.
Some of the Android models include those from Samsung, LG, ZTE, Huawei, Sony, Alcatel, and others.
The exhaustive list can be found here.
iPhone SE, iPhone 6S, and iPhone 6S are the Apple models.
How Chats ‘Leak’ Despite Encryption
After recent news where private chats of celebrities have been obtained by authorities, concerns over privacy are once again rising.
WhatsApp says that chats are end-to-end encrypted, meaning that only the sender and receiver can read them.
The problem is that Chat Backups made to Google Drive or iCloud are not encrypted.
So law enforcement agencies can approach Google and Apple with the order to hand over the chat backups.
Or of course, the phone can simply be seized with the demand to the owner to unlock it, after which everything is out in the open for them.