WhatsApp had its ups and downs after Facebook purchased it in 2014 for the staggering amount of $19 billion. But the good things done by the developers of the famous instant messaging app had proven their utility. WhatsApp now has over 2 billion users worldwide, and there’s no sign that this number will decrease anytime soon.
But any app has its flaws, and it’s also the case for WhatsApp. One of the most annoying issues was the one causing phone numbers of some users to emerge within the Google search results.
Problem solved
The developers of the instant messaging app are claiming that from now on, users won’t be experiencing such issues anymore. The fix comes several days after an India-based researcher named Athul Jayaram revealed that certain phone numbers of WhatsApp users appeared in search results. They created a simplified link for allowing other users to chat with them or join a group.
A spokesperson of WhatsApp said that the feature, which is called Click to Chat, is designed to help users:
While we appreciate this researcher’s report and value the time that he took to share it with us, it did not qualify for a bounty since it merely contained a search engine index of URLs that WhatsApp users chose to make public. All WhatsApp users, including businesses, can block unwanted messages with the tap of a button,
There are plenty of great alternatives to WhatsApp. The world certainly doesn’t end with the Facebook-owned app when it comes to instant messaging and video calls. Viber, Skype, Telegram, Line, Google Hangouts, and others can be great options as well. WhatsApp’s key feature remains the end-to-end encryption, and this should be the main criterion when you’re searching for an instant messaging and video calling app.
WhatsApp is available for both Android and iOS, but you can also use it as a desktop version.
