All change for WhatsApp

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WhatsApp has just shown why Apple’s next upgrade — bringing fully encrypted RCS messaging to iPhone — still lacks critical privacy protections. The world’s most popular messaging platform is rolling out changes to its 3 billion users, taking the fight to Apple and Google as the messaging battle heats up. In doing so, WhatsApp makes a strong case for users to forget any move to RCS.

WhatsApp’s new user names are already rolling out to beta testers. By setting a user name, you no longer have to share your actual phone number to add new contacts and send/receive messages. It’s a game-changer for private messaging.

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Keeping your number private, already possible on Signal and Telegram, is a major security and privacy benefit, and one that core text and RCS messaging on Apple and Google devices still can’t match. I recommend all users take this up when it becomes generally available (in phases) over the coming months.

WhatsApp also has another game-changing feature cross-platform RCS can’t match. Disappearing or “view once” messages. You can already set media in WhatsApp to delete once seen and you can set any chat to delete after a set time. This will likely expand to make texting as ephemeral as an actual conversation.

WhatsApp’s primary beta leaker, WABetaInfo, has already flagged this. “A new special button placed next to the chat bar," which it said would enable "sending a view once text. But what’s a view once text? As you can imagine, the view once text will disappear from the conversation when the recipient opens it.”

While strongly denied by WhatsApp, the security of WhatsApp messages has been attacked again this week by Elon Musk and Pavel Durov, who have both questioned the integrity and practical protections provided by the platform’s encryption.

“WhatsApp’s ‘E2E encryption by default’ claim is a giant consumer fraud,” Durov posted on X. “~95% of private messages on WhatsApp end up in plain-text backups on Apple/Google servers — not E2E-encrypted. Backup encryption is optional, and few people enable it — let alone use strong passwords.”

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The backup warning is a real issue. Your messages and attachments sitting on countless phones and in countless cloud backups — over which you have no control — is not good security. Disappearing messages are good, albeit the current timer settings are too long. Use view once media for anything you don’t want retained.

New privacy features are WhatsApp’s best RCS defense, coming at a critical time for messaging, as Apple and Google launch fully encrypted, cross-platform messaging for billions os users. It’s no surprise to see WhatsApp pushing back.