After Instagram, Apple iPad app next? Here is what WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart said

Whatsapp's chief has recently revealed that they are in favour of releasing an iPad app. "People have wanted an iPad app for a long time," Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp at its parent company Meta, told The Verge during an interview this week. "We'd love to do it," Cathcart added. Like Instagram for the iPad, a version of WhatsApp for Apple's tablet has long eluded users despite being a heavily requested feature.

While Cathcart wouldn't go so far as to commit to the release of an iPad version, his comments suggest it's possible that one will be built in the near future, especially now that WhatsApp has built the underlying technology needed for such a client to work.

"We did a lot of work on the technology for supporting multiple devices," Cathcart said, referencing the rollout of opt-in, multi-device support for WhatsApp last year.

"Our web and our desktop apps now have that. If I have multi-device on, I can turn my phone off or lose my network connection and still get messages on my desktop. That would be really important for a tablet app, to be able to use the app even if your phone isn't on. So the underlying technology is there," he shared.

Because of the way WhatsApp encrypts messages, it historically hasn't been able to sync chats across devices over the internet like most other messaging apps work. So if WhatsApp on your phone didn't have access to the internet, the desktop client didn't work.

The beta version of multi-device support lets you sync your WhatsApp account on up to four devices at a time, a process that involves mapping device identifiers to an account key on WhatsApp's servers in a way that's still encrypted.

Now that such syncing technology exists, there's a good chance that WhatsApp for iPad is finally on the horizon. 

Facebook Messenger groups now have end-to-end encryption for calls, chats

(ANI): Facebook Messenger has added a string of new features recently. The features that users have received include end-to-end encryption, screenshot detection, message reactions, typing indicators, among several others.

Messenger added end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) chatting in 2016 when it was still called Facebook Messenger, and Meta was still Facebook.

Now many things have changed, but the optional feature is fully rolled out to everyone, with toggles to encrypt text messages as well as group chats and calls, reported The Verge.

Meta has discussed switching to E2EE as a default, but that may not happen until next year at the earliest, as some regulators claim this would harm public safety.

There are two ways Messenger users can opt in to the secure chats, either via vanish mode, by swiping up on an existing chat to enter one where messages automatically disappear when the window is closed or the original version that was introduced in 2016 as Secret Conversations. You can turn that on by toggling the lock icon when you start a new chat.

In addition to a full rollout of the feature, Messenger has some new features to enable as well. Now, in end-to-end encrypted chats, you can use GIFs, stickers, reactions, and long-press to reply or forward messages.

The encrypted chats also now support verified badges so that people can identify authentic accounts. You can also save media exchanged in the chats, and there's a Snapchat-style screenshot notification that will be rolling out over the next few weeks.

The screenshot detection feature and the message reactions feature is something WhatsApp users have been waiting to get for a long time. However, now that Facebook has made the features available to Messenger, they may soon be unveiled on WhatsApp as well.

All the new features will be rolled out to Messenger in the coming weeks.