Meta's messaging app.
About WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a messaging application launched in 2009 by two former Yahoo employees and acquired by Facebook (now Meta) in 2014 for roughly 19 billion US dollars — one of the largest tech acquisitions in history. With more than two billion users it is the de-facto communication standard in large parts of the world.
The app offers text, voice and video messaging, group chats and file sharing. Since 2016 all personal conversations are protected by the Signal protocol's end-to-end encryption, which means Meta cannot read message content.
Criticism centers on what encryption does not cover: metadata. Who you talk to, when, how often and from where is visible to Meta and can be combined with data from Facebook and Instagram. A controversial 2021 privacy-policy update that formalized data sharing with Meta drove millions of users to alternatives like Signal and Threema.
What critics say
Early read
Based on 4 reviews so far
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7/10
The Verge
Tom Warren
“Fast and familiar, but it's a Meta product through and through.”
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3/5
CNET
Rae Hodge
“Convenient, if you can live with the data sharing.”
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5.5/10
Wired
Andy Greenberg
“Encrypted messages, unencrypted metadata.”
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2/5
PCMag
Max Eddy
“Everyone's on it; that's both the point and the problem.”
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