But even before India was alleged to have used the spyware to spy on political leaders and other humanitarian personalities, the subcontinent had already begun implementing stricter rules on the use of technology, especially on social media apps.

INDIA’S NEW SOCIAL MEDIA RULES EXPLAINED

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In May this year, India implemented new laws governing the use of social media in the country. It saw applications like WhatsApp, Facebook and Google relook their approach for doing business in the country.

Last year, India banned about 50 Chinese-based apps including social media giant TikTok over security concerns. Most of these apps have left the Indian market but some are gradually returning, after incorporating changes requested by the government.

WhatsApp, which was also one of the entry points used by Pegasus to track its victim, has long been a security concern in India. With over 500 million users in India, the government has requested the app-maker to make several changes over the years and now look towards a new approach to solve the problem.

The Indian government has launched its own messaging app. (Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP)

Last week, the Indian central government launched Sandes, an instant messaging platform that works like WhatsApp. Available on Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, the app is being touted as India’s answer to a secure messaging platform.

According to reports, the app was developed in India and is currently being used by government employees and linked agencies. Users only need a valid mobile number and email ID to work. Sandes is also integrated with NIC email, DigiLocker, and e-office.

“Sandes is an open source-based, secure, cloud-enabled platform. It is hosted by the government and on government infrastructure, ensuring the control remains with the government only. Sandes boasts features such as one-to-one and group messaging, file and media sharing, audio-video call, and e-gov application integration,” said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, India.

Traceability… or privacy?

In 2018, India proposed that WhatsApp make its messages traceable, especially at a time where false information was circulating a lot in India, resulting in extreme circumstances including losses of lives. These traceability requirements have now been included in India’s new IT rules.

The law also required social media firms to appoint local officers to address on-ground concerns as well as be given the power to take down posts deemed offensive.

Citing privacy concerns, WhatsApp decided to sue the Indian government in a Delhi court. The IT Rules 2021 has even affected other social media platforms such as Twitter.

At the same time, WhatsApp also announced that it has blocked two million accounts in India for violating the limits of the number of times messages can be forwarded in India.

Using advanced machine learning technology, the submissions were made as part of its first monthly compliance report under the nation’s new IT rules. WhatsApp bans around eight million accounts monthly worldwide.

Another tech giant, Google, has also expressed commitment to complying with India’s new IT rules and local laws.

Can traceability co-exist with end-to-end security?

Whilst the Indian government touts “end-to-end security” for Sandes, it contradicts their stance that messages ought to remain traceable under the new laws.

If the content on a messaging app is to be traceable, the approaches taken to identify the information of the sender would require third-party access.

The Internet Society explores several possible approaches, but the consensus amongst cybersecurity experts is that end-to-end protection and traceability are inconsistent and cannot co-exist — at least, not with current methods.

Furthermore, there is doubt that the approaches listed could be reliably used to attribute a message to its originator.

Experts say that third-party access methods would break end-to-end encryption by enabling third-party access to content, and weaken the security and privacy protections for users.

While it is uncertain how the uptake of Sandes will be in the subcontinent in the weeks to come, the government is taking a strong stance on making sure they have sufficient visibility on content to ensure there is minimal offensive content, prevent abuse and misinformation.

The post India’s Sandes takes on WhatsApp, citing security and misinformation concerns appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Over two years after initiating its first trial in the country, Facebook’s WhatsApp payments service is finally ready to start operating in India, the popular instant messaging platform’s largest market.

After a couple of stop-start attempts to get it cleared through a digital payments regulatory labyrinth, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has officially approved WhatsApp payments to use India’s own Unified Payments Interface (UPI) infrastructure.

India’s digital payments space is already crowded with local and foreign payment players all fighting for a piece of the second-largest internet market in the world. Domestic pioneer Paytm along with Alphabet’s Google Pay, Walmart’s PhonePe, and Amazon Pay are just a few of the dozens of payment methods available on the subcontinent now, with most also relying on UPI facilitate Indian transactions.

NPCI said in its statement that WhatsApp can expand payments to its users in a “graded manner,” and to start with, it can only roll out the payments service to 20 million users and has to work with multiple banking partners. UPI was actually set up by some of the largest banks in India to enable e-payments.

The Facebook-owned service said Friday that it is rolling out WhatsApp payments in ten Indian regional languages in the latest stable version of its app for both Android and iOS.

WhatsApp has amassed over 400 million users in India, giving it a formidable head start to take on market leaders PhonePe and Google Pay, which together command about 80% of the UPI market share. UPI has emerged as the most popular digital payments method in India, in a market that is tipped to be worth US$1 trillion by 2023.

“With UPI, India has created something truly special and is opening up a world of opportunities for micro and small businesses that are the backbone of the Indian economy. India is the first country to do anything like this. I’m glad we were able to support this effort and work together to help achieve a more digital India. I want to thank all our partners who’ve made this possible,” said Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in a video posted last Friday.

“When people can access financial tools, they’re more empowered to support themselves and others, or start a business,” Zuckerberg intoned. “Long term, we need more innovation that gives people control over their money, and making payments easier is a small step that can really help.”

Facebook earlier this year purchased a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms, the digital services firm owned by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and Facebook has been open about its ambition to build a sprawling commerce business in India with WhatsApp messaging at the center.

The post WhatsApp payment arrives in India — for real this time appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

WhatApp’s payment service WhatsApp Pay has been entangled in one regulatory hurdle after another since launching in India in 2018, while mobile payment solutions from Google and Walmart have established dominance in the country’s lucrative digital payments space.

This is all despite India representing WhatsApp’s biggest user base, with over 400 million users registered in India. WhatsApp Pay’s beta launch in 2018 saw over a million users registering for its platform, but it failed to materialize into a full-fledged payment service when government regulatory controls and new data privacy laws caused continued delays to getting approval.

In its place, Google Pay has surged ahead with over 75 million transacting users per month, just in front of Walmart’s PhonePe service which had 60 million paying users in May, according to information obtained by TechCrunch. The two platforms are competing with homegrown Paytm, once the dominant digital payments provider in the country.

India is a world leader in mobile app-based payment methods, with 46 percent of online transactions taking place via mobile devices, data from JPMorgan shows. But there still remains huge growth potential in as smartphone penetration is still low at just 22% of the 1.4 billion population.

And while banking cards are the most-used online payment method at the present, e-wallets are growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80% within the next year, at which point e-wallets will become the primary online payment method, comprising more than a third of all digital transactions.

Google Pay has maintained its overall lead with transacting users despite losing some momentum in India’s tough coronavirus lockdown requirements, owing to Google’s strong penetration of Android mobile apps and services. Much of the payments in the Android ecosystem are funnelled through Google Pay.

Softbank-backed Paytm was an early leader in Indian mobile payments, thanks to its integrations with other popular platforms such as ride-hailing Uber and food delivery startup Swiggy, but has been slow to catch up ever since the government-mandated e-wallets to perform compulsory know-your-customer (KYC) verifications to authenticate and secure users’ identities for payment transactions.

Meanwhile, upstart PhonePe has taken Paytm’s place by integrating with other cutting edge digital services such as Swiggy, ride-hailing player Ola, travel booking service Ixigo, and accommodations operator OYO Hotels.

PhonePE is harboring ambitions of building out its platform into a ‘super app’ like fellow Asian startups WeChat and GoJek, and has about 63 million active users on its app, 45 million of whom are paying customers.

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PhonePe’s head of business, Karthik Raghupathy, attributed the startup’s recent growth to its right timing and its agile strategy. “The rise of smartphones and mobile data adoption in recent years; early adoption to UPI at a time when most mobile payments firms in India were betting on virtual mobile-wallet model; and taking an open-ecosystem approach,” he said.

WhatsApp parent company Facebook, meanwhile seems to be going another direction, having recently invested US$5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd., parent company of Indian online marketplace JioMart, and is looking at how it can leverage WhatApp’s advantages on the subcontinent to connect SMEs with customers.

The post Is WhatsApp Pay out of its depth in India’s e-payment space? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

It has created a world where the United States president wages war over Twitter, people are creating Instagram accounts for their newborn children (and even pets), and self-validation is dependent on the number of likes we receive on a single photo.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A CYBERSECURITY EXPERT TO PROTECT YOUR SMALL BUSINESS

Tech Wire Asia | 5 January, 2018

Research has estimated that by 2019 there will be around 2.77 billion social media users around the globe, with a whopping 47 percent of people in Southeast Asia being active users.

It should come as no surprise then, that the primary platforms cybercriminals choose to target both individuals, businesses, and governments on are through email, mobile and social media.

Thus, with the growing popularity of social media comes the increase in vulnerability to cyberattacks. Platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter have become a breeding ground for a variety of threats.

Here are the latest threats to keep a vigil eye out for on social:

WhatsApp video calling invite

Source: Shutterstock

Many WhatsApp users have reported being targeted by a scam involving being invited to download the popular platform’s video calling service.

The fraudulent invitation leads its unsuspecting victims to a website called “Whatappvideostart”. Once this is activated, it compromises the security of the user’s smartphone and discloses account information and passwords to the attackers.

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Because the scammer makes the message look like it’s coming from the user’s known contact or from the company whose services they’re using, this leaves the victim often not suspecting a thing.

To avoid this particular scam, ensure you update your app only from the official WhatsApp site.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is

Source: Shutterstock

As well as the video-calling scam, several WhatsApp users have been targeted by phishing scams which offer them desirable prizes.

A specific example is a message offering free flights with the well-known airline, Emirates. The link takes users to a fake survey which they’re prompted to complete in order to win two free tickets. Users are then told these can be claimed once they’ve shared the link with 10 of their WhatsApp contacts, spreading the scam further.

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Tech Wire Asia | 19 January, 2018

Then, the user is taken to a new domain for the final step of the scam, where it asks users to sign up with their phone number. With all steps completed, users are then notified that they haven’t won anything.

The best advice to avoid these kinds of scams: If it’s too good, it probably is. If you’re uncertain about something, it’s best to double check the legitimacy with the official company behind the “supposed” offer.

‘Be careful who you’re friends with’

Source: Shutterstock

Facebook is another platform that’s become a hotbed for phishing and malware attacks.

One of the latest scams on the popular social media platform appears to a very trusted source; your own friends.

The scam works by sending the victim a message from a Facebook friend asking for urgent help to recover their account, since they’ve added you as one of their “Trusted Contacts”.

According to a public security alert published by AccessNow, this attack is initiated by an already compromised account of one of your friends, who sends a message to you asking for “urgent help” to gain access back into their account.

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The hacker (who’s hiding behind the identity of your friend) asks you to check your email for a recovery code to then share with the attacker.

However, this “recovery code” is actually a “Forgot my password” request initiated by the hacker, in an attempt to hijack your Facebook account.

The best way to protect yourself from this scam is to be extremely vigilant to every recovery email you receive. The above procedure is not how Facebook’s Trusted Contacts feature actually works, so make sure you familiarize yourself on the feature before accepting anything.

The above scams are only a few examples of the many lurking around the social media world.

And with social media platforms continuing to grow and have an all-encompassing presence in our daily lives, it is crucial that both individuals and businesses keep a vigilant eye on such vulnerabilities.

The post Social media scams on the rise: Here’s what you should look out for appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Available to download on Android, the app is aimed at small businesses who want a seamless way to connect to their digitally-savvy customers. And with 1.3 billion users, the app is the perfect platform for consumers to chat with businesses who matter to them.

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Small businesses can set up a WhatsApp Business profile by filling out information such as its business description, company email, address and website.

Users will know they’re talking with a business account as these will be listed as “Business accounts”, which will then become “Confirmed Accounts” once WhatsApp verifies it.

After being established on the network, businesses are free to use a variety of tools provided on the app, including smart messaging tools.

Using these tools, businesses are able to send quick replies to consumers to commonly asked questions, greeting messages that welcome and introduce customers to your business, as well as the ability to alert your customers with ‘away messages’ if you’re busy.

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Users will also have access to messaging statistics, including simple metrics such as the number of messages read. This will come in handy for businesses who want to see what messaging content seems to engage customers most successfully.

Users of the app are also able to send and receive messages from the desktop via WhatsApp Web.

Though businesses must download the new app to communicate with customers, the everyday WhatsApp user can continue using the general version.

But will this result in businesses spamming users with endless promotions?

Luckily for them, the everyday user can control this by reporting any experience of spam and will be able to block numbers and businesses.

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Furthermore, businesses will only be able to connect with consumers who have provided their phone number and agreed to receive messages from the business.

Though WhatsApp Business seems to be initially aimed at smaller businesses, according to Tech Crunch, the app will in the future be joined by larger businesses – such as e-commerce sites and banks – with a global customer base.

This business move from the company is not surprising considering the masses of people who use the platform today. According to research by Morning Consult, over 80 percent of small businesses in India and Brazil reported the usefulness of WhatsApp in communicating with customers and growing their businesses.

Though not mentioned in the company’s announcement of the rollout, the digital communication giant has previously said it would charge for these enterprise tools. It is assumed these tools will be added to the current WhatsApp for Business product.

Though the company has prioritized Android after finding this is where businesses use WhatsApp more prominently, it plans to support other platforms such as iOS in the future.

The post WhatsApp Business finally launches in select markets – and it’s free for now appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

So how do the major social platforms make money to pay for, apart from anything else, their hosting bills? Apart from well-publicised public stock offerings, the world’s social media giants need to show investors in the world’s stock markets how they create serious revenue streams.

Different social platforms tend to be more or less popular depending on where they operate in the world, with no one single platform dominating geographically. Twitter and Facebook may dominate in the US, but in Asia, the choice is more multifaceted and complex, with Line, KakaoTalk, WeChat, Viber and several more jostling for position.

Line

The Line social network is currently largely confined to APAC (despite attempts to make market inroads elsewhere), with the majority (two thirds) of its user base in Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan.

The company, borne of the Naver Corp., a South Korean company unwilling or unable to compete with KaKaoTalk, turned over around US$1bn last year. Its income was from three main sources: advertising, in-app games, and stickers.

The stickers craze is difficult to understand for non-Asians but even in China, where Line is banned, the Shanghai Line store which sells merchandise based on stickers’ characters is so popular that it is well-known locally for regularly having long queues outside.

Around 40 percent of Line’s income is from in-app purchases in social games which its users play with, and against, one another. The network additionally gains revenue from Line Pay (electronic payments) and Line News (a subscription service).

Like many social media networks, the company is striving to make Line the go-to single application for its users, the majority of which are mobile. By keeping users inside the ecosystem, spend is kept neatly “in-house”.

Line is reportedly also considering launching its own cryptocurrency and is said to be in discussions with a number of potential partners over a possible tie-in around Line Pay. The goal, the reports claim, is also to keep its users inside the Line system.

Facebook

Facebook as a company offers several social apps in addition to its core social platform with its ubiquitous timeline. Notably, these are Messenger (2 billion MAUs) and WhatsApp (acquired in 2014, with 1 billion MAUs). The California-headquartered business seems to be undertaking an Asian-style app consolidation process: the industry consensus is that “peak advertising” has been reached, with users’ timelines probably not able to absorb any more advertising materials.

Facebook’s latest initiative is the public beta of WhatsApp Business. This new app is completely separate from the regular version of WhatsApp and is specifically designed to be used by companies to enable them to communicate with their customers or customers-to-be.

When finally launched into the wild, it is thought that users will be able to place orders on the WhatsApp Business app and then receive updates, like delivery confirmation, tracking information or even flight details.

With annual revenues of around US$27 billion (in 2016), Facebook certainly has the cash to be able to experiment with revenue platforms, and some of which, such as the Oculus Rift VR platform, has yet to even reach mass adoption, never mind produce an income model for the company.

Viber

At first glance, the Viber app appears to have little or no method by which it makes money. It gets some small income from its users making or receiving international calls via the app, plus its users can buy a series of (indubitably cute) stickers in the manner of Line.

Recently, the company has started showing advertising materials after calls terminate – despite the company’s initial statements on launch that it would be both free to use and advertising-free.

But Viber is part of the Rakuten brand (which includes the Kindle-like Kobo), and Rakuten has an immense presence in Japan, and a profile among its users that online shopping giants like Amazon can only dream of.

In the nine months ending Sept 2017, the company reported US$6bn revenue, representing a 21 percent climb in income year on year, from a raft of businesses that are cleverly interwoven: purchases on the company’s credit card create discounts for the online shopping platform, and so forth.

Rakuten’s brand identity and membership program in Japan is strong enough for Viber to remain largely free (and free-from advertising) for its users. Viber’s parent company’s successful diversification means that it does not, for now, need to be mined for revenues.

Across the globe, there is no single, successful model of how social media companies make their money. New technologies such as VR or blockchain may prove the key to future revenues, or diversification away from pure technological concerns may be positive.

The multiple-apps-within-an-app system epitomized by WeChat et al appears to be popular at present, but at the same time, Facebook seems to be making no steps to amalgamate its various platforms into one. Longevity is not assured; the wayside is littered with the corpses of failed social networks (does anyone remember MySpace?) and fashion and changing preference according to demographics ensure that this market is built on shifting sands.

The post The changing face of social media revenue models appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

According to the Deccan Chronicle, the service recorded the data between 12 am to 11:59 pm PST only, on Dec 31, 2017.

This was the highest-ever number of messages shared on the platform, which boasts over one billion users worldwide. India is the largest market for the service that has over 200 million active users.

While the world celebrated the countdown to the new year, popular messaging service WhatsApp suffered a global outage for about an hour before the problem was fixed.

“WhatsApp users around the world experienced a brief outage today that has now been resolved,” a WhatsApp spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

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The reason behind the outage, was possibly due to the heavy usage of the app to send in New Year greetings to family and friends.

During the outage, users could send messages, but the recipients did not receive the texts.

This is shown on the single grey tick on the side of each message and the absence of a double blue tick, despite the Internet connections of both the sender and receiver working perfectly.

Meanwhile, India on Thursday began investigating a report that access to its database of the identity details of more than one billion citizens was being sold for just US$8 on Whatsapp, in what could be one of the giant programme’s biggest security breaches.

The Tribune newspaper said it had been able to buy login credentials to the Aadhaar database, allowing it to acquire information such as the names, telephone numbers and home addresses of millions of people.

The paper said it bought access for as little as INR500 (US$7.89) from someone on a WhatsApp social media group.

A 3D printed Whatsapp logo is seen in front of a displayed Whatsapp logo in this illustration. Source: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

The “case appears to be an instance of misuse,” said the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which runs the biometric identity card scheme, the world’s largest.

The agency said it had initiated a police complaint against the people responsible for selling the access, but did not identify them.

Crucial data, “including biometric information, is fully safe and secure,” the agency said in a statement. The database incorporates fingerprints and iris scans, besides basic information details.

“Mere display of demographic information can’t be misused without biometrics,” it added, ruling out financial fraud, saying access to bank accounts required further authentication that involved fingerprint and iris scans.

But the breach is the latest in a programme facing increasing scrutiny over privacy concerns and is likely to prompt further questions about data safety.

INDIA’S 200M USERS MIGHT HAVE CAUSED WHATSAPP’S NEW YEAR OUTAGE

Tech Wire Asia | 1 January, 2018

India’s Supreme Court is holding hearings to decide if a drive by the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to link Aadhaar to private and public services infringes the privacy rights of individuals.

“The perils of making Aadhaar mandatory and linking it to bank accounts, as insisted upon by the Modi government, are visible here,” Sitaram Yechury, a leader of the communist party, said in a Twitter post.

“Do we need more proof to stop this madness?”

Last month, the agency barred telecoms firm Bharti Airtel and its Airtel Payments Bank from using Aadhaar details to verify customers’ identities, because the facility was being misused to open accounts on its payment platform.

Additional reporting by Reuters

The post On New Year’s eve, India’s WhatsApp users sent billions of messages appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

“WhatsApp users around the world experienced a brief outage today that has now been resolved”, a WhatsApp spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

There was no intention to start my new year by complaining but hey @WhatsApp you are severely down and all the Indian aunties and uncles are getting frustrated. #whatsappisdown

— Vishwa[jeet] Srivastava (@vishwajeets3) December 31, 2017

The cause of the outage, about an hour long, was not immediately known.

In India, its biggest market with about 200 million of its billion-plus users, and counting. The app was down just a few minutes past midnight into the new year, but many users in the country found themselves unable to send new year wishes to their friends and family creating a lot of confusion and chaos.

When #WhatsappIsDown and people actually have to talk to fellow humans. ? pic.twitter.com/uA0IwzvQSX

— Israel Nava (@izzy_film) December 31, 2017

The reason behind the outage, according to NDTV, was possibly due to the heavy usage of the app to send in New Year greetings to family and friends.

During the outage, users could send messages, but the recipients did not receive the texts. This is shown on the single grey tick on the side of each message and the absence of a double blue tick, despite the Internet connections of both the sender and receiver working perfectly.

Never get dependent on Technology as they said.. So first Lesson of Year #2018 and yes Wish you all a Happy new year… #Whatsappisdown #Happynewyear #WhatsApp

— Ambikesh Kumar (@Ambiikesh) December 31, 2017

Some users received notifications that read: “Our service is experiencing a problem right now. We are working on it and hope to restore functionality shortly. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

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Angered and confused by the outage, many users took to social media to express their frustrations, coming up with hashtags like #WhatsAppisdown, #WhatsAppstoppedworking which became trending on Twitter. Other users took the opportunity to post some hilarious memes.

Users in other countries also complained of outages on social media.

Additional reporting by Reuters

The post India’s 200m users might have caused WhatsApp’s New Year outage appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

GIFs are popular form of messaging among netizens that lies somewhere between a short video and a photograph. The stutter-stop moving pictures are widely used across social media platforms, and are being integrated across more and more systems.

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However, according to Indonesia’s Communications and Informatics Ministry, the service is being used to spread content on topics banned in the country’s Internet space. Based off of research by Tor Project, a non-profit company that creates Web browsing tools, Indonesia’s Internet is partly censored, including ones that criticize Islam, offer dating services and sex education.

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) had urged the Communications Ministry to block pornographic GIF images accessible via emoticons, complaining that children could easily reach them, according to news website kompas.com.

WhatsApp said that control over what GIFs users send is largely out of their hands, as their message encryption prevents them from monitoring the files. The company relies on third-party services, such as Giphy, Tenor and G Board which are directly integrated into the service, to supply the GIFs, many of which tend to be user-created.

The company, according to Reuters, said they directed the government to work with these providers instead, but government officials hit back, saying that WhatsApp should be the party in charge.

“They have responded, but asked us to speak directly to the third party,” the Communications and Informatics Ministry director-general Semuel Pangerapan said, according to Reuters.

“The GIFs appeared in their apps. Why do we have to be the one speaking to the third party? They are supposed to be the ones managing it.”

WHATSAPP’S NEW FEATURES GIVE GROUP ADMINISTRATORS MORE CONTROL

Tech Wire Asia | 25 October, 2017

He said that WhatsApp has to “follow the rules of the host” country, adding that the company has been alerted to the ministry’s concerns through three previous letters on the issue.

Indonesia has a sometimes-rocky relationship with the various Internet services within its borders. The country has at various points blocked access to popular platforms such as Tumblr and Vimeo, while messaging platform Telegram was accused of being home to “radicals and terrorist propaganda”. Each company reached settlements with the government and had their bans rescinded.

Indonesia is home to one of the biggest demographics in WhatsApp’s user demographics, and being ousted could be devastating for the platform.

On their part, some of the third-party platforms are responding to the criticisms by offering fixes to their platforms. Tenor Inc., one of WhatsApp’s partners, said it was looking to release a “fix” to the issue. Tenor spokesman Jennifer Kutz said  Tenor “regularly” worked with “local entities to make sure our content reflects the cultural mores and legal requirements.”

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In a statement, Kutz said Tenor would “address the content issues raised by the Indonesian government within the next 48 hours”.

“In the case of WhatsApp, we’re taking on this responsibility,” Kutz said in an email to Reuters.

Giphy – who did not respond to requests for comment – has previously been blocked by the Indonesian government for its gambling-related ads. The company does, however, offer a filter option for its partners. Indonesia’s warning did not appear to target Gboard, a keyboard app developed by Google that provides comparable GIF search results but must be installed separately from WhatsApp on most devices.

Additional reporting by Reuters

The post Indonesian regulators threaten to block WhatsApp over obscene GIFs appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The developments in the Facebook owned communications app, will also allow the WhatsApp group administrators to choose if other participants can modify the subject of the group, its icon and its description.

As a communication tool being used by many business leaders, WhatsApp’s new feature will improve group management and allow selected users to edit the subject and create relevant content for other members.

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The social messaging app which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for US$19 billion, is one of the world’s fastest-growing communication apps. It currently has more than 700 million monthly active users and carries 30 billion messages per day, which is double Facebook’s daily message traffic.

The take-over angered many users. Despite the app’s founder, Jan Koum, promising that no privacy features would change, some policies did experience a shift. The app still has end-to-end encryption, it does not prevent Facebook from accessing your account, and reading your messages if it truly wishes to.

WhatsApp announce the release of the “unsend” button Source: Shutterstock

Since the buyout of WhatsApp, the company has been trying to improve its other features to ensure users don’t stray, including a reprogram of the app to safeguard group creators from being deleted by other group administrators.

However, the most anticipated feature is the “unsend” button which will undoubtedly be welcomed by all users. Whether you’ve accidentally messaged the wrong person or you instantly regret sending a risky message, the “unsend” feature will most definitely come in handy.

The messaging app is also testing the “Delete for Everyone” feature. Using this, the sender can recall or unsend texts, images, video, GIFs, quoted messages and even status replies within a five-minute window.

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Yet, it is not just risky messages that are avertable in WhatsApp. Since the launch of the 2.17.31 version of WhatsApp, users have been able to transfer all sorts of work-place files via the app, including doc, docx, pdf, ppt, pptx, rtf and more.

Whilst this is brilliant for sending urgent files in out-of-hours, it also leaves employees open to sending the wrong files, and not being able to dash over to their colleagues desk to tell them not to open it. But, you’ll never have to worry about sending over your incomplete presentation or pictures of your new puppy instead of spreadsheets, again – as long as your realize your mistake in less than five minutes.

According to Wabetainfo.com, a fan site that tests new WhatsApp features early, the Facebook-owned messaging platform has submitted this new update through Google Play Beta Program in the version 2.17.387.

The post WhatsApp’s new features give group administrators more control appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.