A concern over WhatsApp is the inability to control your public privacy (especially as it's Terms of Service still include passing your metadata upstream to Meta). Contacts who pay close attention can learn more about your social routine (based on your online status and visible activity). Now, thanks to dedicated developers, it's possible to overcome some of these issues with the help of third-party apps. One of the most well-known and popular third-party apps is WhatsApp Plus. But installing this mod comes with risks and reapable benefits, which we address in this guide.
WhatsApp Plus is not on the Google Play Store. It's considered an unofficial app made by a third-party developer, Rafalete (a senior member of XDA, the creator of WhatsApp Plus). Any data you share will be affiliated with this developer. Also, it requires uninstalling the official app to run this mod. WhatsApp Plus uses the same source code as WhatsApp but adds some modifications. So, your privacy and safety cannot be guaranteed upon using this unofficial app. Another note is that you must also download the app from third-party sources, which brings another set of risks.
You also run into the risk of getting your WhatsApp account banned.
It also seems that the original article that was published about this at Android Police, has been "unpublished" so I'll link instead to the cached version, as it is quite a good article covering how to install it etc.
Some of the features provided by Plus include:
* Customizable themes and fonts
* More emoticons styles from Google, Facebook, and Apple
* Hide social status
* Freeze last seen
* Hide writing status
* Pattern and PIN lock
* Longer message recall duration
* Improved file-sending limits
* Anti-ban protection (?)
Unfortunately, WhatsApp does have some rather stringent app requirements (and also no easy API that can be used in place of the mobile app). Basically WhatsApp forces you to keep the app active on your phone, in order to use the service, so not even Beeper will help, as the WhatsApp app has to remain installed.
So, really, WhatsApp Plus is a WhatsApp user's only hope to try to evade the monitoring and metadata leaking. But you do need to read the linked article to check the potential downsides.
See
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AQo_SrTKam3wJ%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpolice.com%2Fwhat-is-whatsapp-plus%2F&cd=22&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us#
technology #
WhatsApp #
privacy
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