Innehållsförteckning för Issue 6 från WhatsApp The Complete Manual

WHAT IS ENCRYPTION? Encryption scrambles the contents of a message, making it impossible to read without a key to decipher it. In digital terms, these keys are generated by the app and sent with the messages telling the program on the other side how to decrypt the content. In terms of hacking, a high standard of encryption, AES 256-bit, will take a computer more years to crack than the universe has been in existence.…

WI-FI HOTSPOTS If you’re frequently out and about, and use WhatsApp a lot, then you may want to consider opting to use freely available Wi-Fi hotspots. While good, hotspots do warrant an element of caution. WhatsApp’s messages are end-to-end encrypted but not all your other mobile data is. This unencrypted data could be intercepted and viewed by hotspot hackers.…

STICKERS & EMOJI Tap the stickers icon and you can display a set of available stickers or emoji to add to your image. Tap to select one or more of the emoji or stickers and they’re placed on the image. Tap and hold it and you can move it around the image to position it how you want.…

Sticker Maker for WhatsApp – This app contains loads of stickers, Emoji and Emoticons alongside the ability to create your own Emoji. There’s bundles of unique fonts, styles and even accessories you can include within your chats. It’s free and available from Google Play. WhatsSmiley – This Android based app adds heaps of new and brilliantly designed Emoji and Emoticons to WhatsApp and other social media platforms. It’s easy to use and the styles are presented in clear HD Emojis For SMS & Social Messaging Apps – Windows Phone users can get a huge 3,000-plus pack of Emoji and Emoticon Stickers via the Windows Store tile. This app features high quality stickers from simple smileys to famous people, TV and movies; plus it’s free to download and use. Emoji Stickers…

UN-MUTE CHATS If you want to bring the conversation back alive again before the set time period has elapsed, simply reverse the process. Notice that the muted chat contact has the mute icon in their chat bar, just under the date. Tap and long press to bring the menu up and tap the speaker icon (this time without a line through it) to unmute the chat.…

UNBLOCKING CONTACTS Unblocking a contact can be done via the Settings > Privacy > Blocked Contacts screen. Tap the contact you want to unblock, then at the foot of the information screen that appears, tap the Unblock ‘contact name/number’ option. The contact is now unblocked and you can receive messages, calls and status updates from them.…

ADDING CONTACTS OR DELETING LISTS You can easily add more contacts to your Broadcast List and even delete the list by tapping and holding on the Broadcast List until a tick appears, tapping the three vertical dots in the corner and selecting Broadcast List Info from the menu. The info screen allows you to add and remove recipients or contacts, as well as delete the list or report a list as spam.…

1 Protecting your WhatsApp account can be done mainly through the Settings > Account option. In here you’re able to secure your personal details, profile, status, messaging and visibility of your account. 2 Thankfully, WhatsApp already encrypts and secures messages sent from one device to another. This means that your data can’t be intercepted and read. However, you can opt to view security notifications if a contact’s security setting has been altered. This is in the Settings > Account > Security menu. chats. 3 For added security you can opt for two-step authentication, which requires a PIN when registering your phone number with WhatsApp. This is an absolute must for those who use the app regularly. 4 Beyond WhatsApp itself, make sure that your phone or tablet is securely locked…

FOR GUARDIANS Those of you who are in charge of a young person, here’s some tips to help keep them safe in an ever-changing digital world. Talk – Probably the most important piece of advice anyone can give: Talk. Have regular conversations about what’s happening online. Talk about the latest scams, talk about what should and shouldn’t be shared online or in WhatsApp. Encourage them to be able to talk to you about anything online. Research – Do your research! In conjunction with the first piece of advice, read about the latest scams coming through WhatsApp and online, so you can talk to a young person. Use sites such as Net Aware (https://www.net-aware.org.uk/#) to keep up-to-date with the latest digital safety news. FOR KIDS You may well know more about…

BE SMART We’ve put together some tips to help you train your mind into being able to handle some common chat and WhatsApp situations. 1 Screenshots can be your backup. If you find yourself in a conversation that’s turned, or is turning, into something unpleasant, then make sure you screenshot every aspect of the conversation. Therefore, if you’re called on to prove what happened later, then you’ve got the evidence behind you. 2 Accept people’s points of view. Not everyone has the same viewpoint on society, modern living, or life in general, as you do. Sometimes what seems natural to them may offend you, and vice versa. Learn to give a little, not too much, but enough so that you’re not constantly offended. Obviously, report any true offensive behaviour, but…

VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK Using a VPN can help hide your online presence. While this may seem like an ideal way to get to illegal content, it’s actually designed to help fight for your basic right to Internet and digital privacy. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is, essentially, a server or group of servers in a remote location with which you’ll connect through a client. The VPN servers will then hide your Internet-bound IP address with their own, so for example, if you’re connected to a VPN that’s located in Australia then your IP address would appear as if you were actually sat at a desktop Down Under. The benefits of this are many, but mainly a VPN will allow you to access region restricted websites, protect you from tracking, and…

The Good – WhatsApp has regularly been used to help journalists, and those in conflict nations around the world, spread the news of what’s actually happening within a country where access to the Internet and the outside world is near impossible. The Bad – WhatsApp is fast becoming one of the main platforms for spreading malware, viruses, and scamming users. Scams include fake offers, fake users, and data theft. The Ugly – WhatsApp has been used in cases of cyberbullying, some of which have resulted in young people self-harming and even in some circumstances, committing suicide.…

At its heart, WhatsApp is simply a free to use cross-platform instant messaging service. However, to its many users the app is much more than just a means of keeping in touch. The WhatsApp phenomenon has spread throughout the social media digital world, offering the end user a safe and secure platform in which to communicate. There are examples of people using WhatsApp to help inform police and security services of crime as it happens, enabling better lines of communication with the public and law enforcement as well as gathering of evidence against a perpetrator. People have used WhatsApp to record geological events such as erupting volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes and other such catastrophes. Thanks to WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption and high standards of security, users can talk, send attachments, images and…

MULTI-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION The future of multi-factor authentication is rapidly approaching, with the likes of WhatsApp testing such methods as voice activation, biometrics in the form of fingerprinting and facial recognition. All these modes of authentication are already available on our devices, so what’s next?…

CHAT HISTORY At the foot of the Chats page are a trio of options that allow you to archive all your chats to the device’s internal storage, clear all chat screens, or delete all your previous chats altogether. The last option needs careful consideration, but feel free to explore the others.…

CONTACT US Just below the Help Center link on the Help page you can see some other options, one of which is Contact Us. Tap this and you’re presented with a contact form allowing you to fill in any unique problem you may have with the service that isn’t mentioned in the Help section, along with adding any screenshots.…

ALTERNATIVE WALLPAPER If you prefer not to download a third-party wallpaper app, go to the main WhatsApp screen, tap the three vertical dots and choose Settings from the menu. Select Chats, then Wallpaper. In the Wallpaper screen select Wallpaper Library and tap OK to download the WhatsApp Wallpaper package. This is an official wallpaper app, so just tap install and follow the on-screen instructions.…

REMOVING THE PINS Removing a pinned chat is simply a reversal of the pinning a chat process. Swipe the pinned chat to the right again, and you once more see two icons. The ‘Pin’ icon now reads ‘Unpin’. Tap it to unpin the chat, allowing it to sink down the list as new messages arrive for other chats.…

UN-ARCHIVE CHATS If you want to bring your archived chats back into the main Chat screen, tap on the ‘Archived chats’ link at the top of the chat list. From within the archived section, select the chat you want to restore, and long tap for the menu or swipe left for the icons. Tap the Unarchive option or icon and the chat is restored.…

SPAM AND HOAXES The Internet is full of spam and hoaxes and WhatsApp is no exception. While the company does an excellent job of blocking most cases of spam, inevitably some do get through. Spam and hoax messages spread false information and are generally designed to deceive you and coax you into acting a certain way. If a message looks suspicious then don’t tap on it, share it or forward it. Report it immediately.…

ALTERNATIVE FORMATTING Alternatively, instead of adding extras before and after the text, simply highlight the text in the text field, tap the Format option that appears and choose Bold, Italic, Strikethrough or Monospace.…

2moro Tomorrow 2nte Tonight AEAP As Early as Possible ALAP As Late as Possible ASAP As Soon as Possible ASL Age / Sex / Location?  B3 Blah, Blah, Blah  B4YKI Before You Know it BFF Best Friends, Forever BM&Y Between Me and You  BRB Be right Back BRT Be right There BTAM Be that as it May C-P Sleepy  CTN Cannot talk now  CUS See You Soon  CWOT Complete Waste of Time CYT See You Tomorrow E123 Easy as 1, 2, 3 EM? Excuse Me?  EOD End of Day F2F Face to Face FC Fingers Crossed FOAF Friend of a Friend GR8 Great  HAK Hugs and Kisses IDC I Don’t Care IDK I Don’t Know ILU / ILY I Love You  IMU I Miss You IRL In Real Life  J/K…

ONLINE BULLYING Cyberbullying is when someone uses the Internet, email, online gaming, social media, and any other kind of digital platform to threaten, tease, humiliate, or upset someone else. Both the bully and the victim of the bullying can be any age, from very young children up to late teens and beyond, in some cases. And the source of the bullying could be someone the victim knows, at school or college, or a complete stranger on the other side of the world. Bullying someone online doesn’t always involve threating remarks. What may seem like a playful comment on one side could be taken as a cutting jibe on the other. It’s not always an easy thing to specify, as we all have moments when we may say or do something…

SCAM, SCAM, AND MORE SCAM! Here are some of the most common WhatsApp scams that currently, and more often repeatedly, plague the service. Codename: Olivia – We have recently seen a scam called Olivia, where the scammer used the name Olivia and then pretended to be a friend, or a friend of a friend, in order to send links to pornographic material.  Verification Links – Scammers have found a way to send anonymous verification messages that contain links to sites, and downloads, which infect your device with malware. The verification messages look similar to those that you receive when you first sign up to WhatsApp, but in fact, they fool you into using them to get a malware payload. Free Stuff – A recent scam claims to be offering free…

KRYPTOS COMMUNICATIONS To better understand encryption it’s worth taking a moment to learn about its origins, how it has been developed over the years, and how it applies to our modern communications. The word encryption comes from the ancient Greek word Kryptos, which means hidden or secret. Interestingly, the use of hiding messages from others can be traced back to early Egyptian scribes who inserted non-standard hieroglyphs within other communications in order to hide the message from casual viewers. According to historians, the Spartans used strips of leather with engraved messages. When the flat strips were read they were meaningless, but when wrapped around a staff of a certain diameter the characters would be decipherable. Of course, the modern forms of encryption are far more advanced, but the overall core…

WhatsApp was launched in January 2009 by two former Yahoo! developers, Brian Acton and Jan Koum. After the pair left Yahoo! in September 2007 they spent some time travelling and, as Internet rumour has it, frequently found it difficult to stay in touch reliably with friends and family. Once they returned home they applied for a number of jobs, one of which was at Facebook HQ. Sadly, or rather thankfully, they were turned down and about that time Koum, living off his saving from Yahoo!, purchased an iPhone and immediately saw the app industry as the way forward. Koum began exploring the possibility of developing an app that would allow mobile users to interact and communicate with each other better than with what was currently available. Teaming up with Acton,…

AN IPHONE, OR ANDROID PHONE? Which is best for WhatsApp? iPhone, Android? There’s a raging debate throughout many forums as to which platform works best with WhatsApp. Some would opt for iPhone immediately, while others maintain Android as being the best. In the end, it’s up to you, but iPhone does appear to have the best layout at present, although that can all change.…

RESET NOTIFICATIONS If you find yourself wanting to start again, with the original and default notification settings, look bottom of the Notifications screen, to the Reset Notifications Settings option in red. Tapping this opens the option to reset all the changed notifications to WhatsApp’s default setup.…

WHO’S WATCHING When your Status is updated, the Status screen changes to whatever content was included. Tapping the My Status section displays the updated Status, showing any images, video etc. that you added. Tapping the three horizontal dots will allow you to see who’s looked at your Status along with forwarding to a contact.…

iPHONE WALLPAPER iPhone users have more choice when it comes to default WhatsApp wallpaper. Open the Chat Wallpaper screen again (Settings > Chats > Chat Wallpaper) and choose Wallpaper Library. Rather than requiring an extra app to download and install, the iPhone has an excellent selection of interesting backgrounds you can use in WhatsApp built-in. Simply select the image and tap it to set up the new backdrop.…

RESTORING YOUR CHAT HISTORY WhatsApp doesn’t store any of its users’ chat histories on the company servers, so as a company, it is unable to retrieve any deleted messages. However, you can use Google Drive or iCloud to back up your chat history and ultimately restore it should anything go wrong. To make a backup, go to Settings > Chats > Chat Backup, and follow the on-screen instructions.…

DESKTOP EMOJI The desktop version of WhatsApp also gives you access to emojis, stickers animated GIFs. In a chat simply click on the smiley face to the right of the text entry box for emojis, or the sticker icon next to it for stickers and GIFs, and you can choose to add them to your messages.…

LEAVE OR DELETE THE GROUP To exit a group, open the group chat and tap its name atop the screen. Scroll the information screen all the way to the bottom, and tap the Exit Group option. To delete the group, remove its members one by one and then leave it yourself. The group, which then has no members, is deleted.…

QUOTING WITH THE DESKTOP VERSION If you want to quote some text via the desktop version of WhatsApp the process is a little different. First open the chat and find the message you want to quote. Hover the mouse pointer over it and a downpointing chevron appears on the right of the message. Click the arrow, followed by Reply. You can now reply in the same way as the mobile version.…

Being the world’s most popular chat appcan’t be easy. The developers issue an update and succeed in making one half of the WhatsApp population happy, while the other half take to other social media platforms to vehemently voice their disgust. You manage to swat one identified scam, and another two come along to take its place. You increase safety and privacy, and it annoys the users with the additional layers of security. It would seem that as a WhatsApp developer you’re facing a never-ending battle of compromises. As a parent or guardian, though, WhatsApp has introduced a new entry point into your child’s web of protection that you have so carefully weaved since the day they were born. It’s this potential chink in the barrier that causes some of the…

One of the best VPN packages available is CyberGhost (https://www.cyberghostvpn.com). It costs very little to sign up for, and is available for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Chrome, Firefox and more. With 256-bit encryption, your data is safe and your device secure when using CyberGhost.…

AVPN, as we’ve discussed already, enables you to connect to a remote server, which gives your computer, or device, an alternative IP address and encases all your communications to and from the device, and the Internet, inside a highly encrypted bubble of protection. It’s a fantastic service and if you haven’t already, you should really consider adopting it. WhatsApp offers a high level of encryption between you and other users, meaning that without the right encryption keys, someone won’t be able to intercept a WhatsApp message and read its contents. However, there have been some security issues brought to light in recent years involving WhatsApp. One of the main issues, that has since been patched, was that the encryption keys could be intercepted when WhatsApp made a connection to an…