WhatsApp Users To Get This Radical New Update: Just Perfect Timing
WhatsApp is on something of a roll these days. The world's most popular messaging platform has been busy enhancing the platform for its 2 billion users. We've already seen improvements to group video chats and QR codes and encrypted backups are in beta. But now we can expect something that trumps all that. The most keenly anticipated missing WhatsApp feature could finally be on the way.
WhatsApp has led the popular messaging world for a decade now. It has built its staggering install base on simplicity and security. The app was the first "over the top" messaging platform that pulled texting away from the networks to cross-platform apps. Addressing the fragmented clunkiness and cost of SMS and the proprietary limitations of BBM, WhatsApp defined modern messaging.
But the world is changing and WhatsApp senses that. Most of us now run multiple messaging platforms on our phones. The notifications on our mobile operating systems ensure we can manage all this with ease. And while there are specialist alternatives, the likes of Signal, Telegram and Wickr, the real threat to WhatsApp's dominance comes from its own Facebook stablemate Messenger, Apple's iMessage, and the new Rich Communication Services (RCS) upgrade to ubiquitous SMS.
Those planning WhatsApp's future—when not focusing on keeping Facebook at bay—are clearly aware of the risk to its dominance from the development of these other options, especially the likes of RCS and iMessage that can be built into the very operating systems of the phones on which they're installed. The issue with those other options, of course, is the lack of interoperability between Android and iOS without falling back onto the insecure clunkiness of SMS. The risk for WhatsApp, of course, is that a rich, secure, updated SMS platform eventually resolves this.
The issue with WhatsApp, meanwhile, is its frustrating cross-platform limitations. Yes, there is a web viewed and various desktop front-ends, but when compared to the smooth running of Signal or Apple's user-first iMessage, it falls totally flat. There is no iPad app, for example, no ability to run seamlessly on a tablet. And now, with Signal trying to shift from secure specialist to mainstream alternative, with Apple playing with iMessage functionality—editing sent texts and better desktop options, for example—WhatsApp needs to act.
And so, finally, it looks like we may have decent cross-platform WhatsApp option on the way. The platform has reportedly been working on this for more than a year. Linking devices rather than simply providing a remote view onto the phone's messages. Having multiple devices open in tandem, synced. The basics, basically.
The ever reliable WABetaInfo reported earlier this month that linked devices was finally graduating from the development bench to some form of beta. No view on the specifics on how it would work in practice—and it looks like there may be a need to transfer message history from one device to another, or to the cloud, requiring WiFi to do so. But the idea of linked devices itself is tried and tested. We all use it on other platforms. This is definitely the missing WhatsApp option.
So what can we expect? Well, the challenge for WhatsApp is its need to combine simple but comprehensive functionality with solid end-to-end encryption. The messages on your device are decrypted, and so the web view WhatsApp provides is essentially a remote viewer onto a decrypted database. But that's data heavy and requires you to keep you phone on.
The trick is to have multiple endpoints, each encrypted in transport, or a central repository, likely in the cloud, from which each endpoint can securely sync. Unless there is a duplicated copy of that message history somewhere, there will be no history available. Unlike Apple and Google, WhatsApp doesn't have a logical way to do this without using Apple or Google cloud services as its backend. Perhaps that's what we will see, unless there's a sync'd message history on every device.
The other critical update WhatsApp is finalising is the encryption of the message and media history backups users can make into the cloud from their Android or iPhone. Until this update rolls out, those backups are copies of the decrypted database and have no inbuilt protection. This is a huge security vulnerability. Perhaps these update are all linked, perhaps there will be a central repository that can be accessed from multiple devices, rather than a backup—we will find out.
One of the primary "linked devices," of course, will be iPads. It remains a frustration for many iOS users that they cannot use WhatsApp on their tablets without relying on the clunky web view. An iPad app has long been stuck somewhere between the rumour mill and the roadmap. A previous WABetaInfo report showed an extension of the new encryption key messages we get now, referencing multiple devices. Clearly, this now will make it a reality.
As WABetaInfo has reported, there is no release data as yet, although we can assume that all being well it will make an appearance in a small number of months. The latest report suggests the new functionality is in test, and that is certainly further advances than we have seen before by some margin.
Not everyone will make use of this update, of course. In fact, most users might well stick to using WhatsApp on a single device. But tens of millions will delight in the added functionality that takes their end-to-end encrypted messaging platform to another level, offering all kinds of additional flexibility. Please hurry up.
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