As the world’s leading messenger, the industry looks to every WhatsApp update with keen interest, as it continues to raise the bar for its 2 billion users. The latest update is a big one, plugging a critical gap, and for millions of users it comes at exactly the right time.
There’s a huge irony in the world of messaging, that WhatsApp is owned by Meta, the world’s most infamous data harvesting machine, and yet has continued to drive its privacy- and security-first agenda despite this conundrum. Recent updates, such as secret message PINs, continue this trend.
WhatsApp’s trick has been to pull off an independent, somewhat petulant attitude within the Meta stable—and for that reason, it remains my recommendation for a go-to daily messenger, despite the better security credentials of Signal, and against the backdrop of Google’s new security drive and Apple’s continued confusion over what it’s trying to achieve with iMessage.
It’s WhatsApp, let’s remember, that popularized the end-to-end encryption that has now become table stakes for the rest of the industry. And more recently, it’s WhatsApp that introduced view-once messaging and text editing and deleting, at real scale. I’m sure there are many out there who are thankful that careless messages aren’t forever beyond their reach to recover or repair.
The gap in this privacy arsenal, though, has been voice messages. These have become ever more popular, easy to send on the go, and providing a viral take on the voice message.
But unlike other messages, these have been unrecoverable until now. But WhatsApp has just fixed this problem, finally introducing the “view once” voice messages it promised a little while ago.
And for millions of us, the timing is perfect. Just as we embark on the holiday season, the (dare I say) alcohol-fueled work nights out, the extended time with friends and families stretching into the New Year, the opportunity for an inadvertent slip, or for sending voice messages we’d rather not hang around for infinity, is now fixed.
“For reading out your credit card details to a friend,” WhatsApp suggested in a blogpost, or when you’re planning a surprise, you can now also share sensitive information over voice message with added peace of mind. For consistency with View Once photos and videos, View Once voice messages are clearly marked with the ‘one-time’ icon and can only be played one time.”
I can think of other, more sensitive voice messages that are best listened to just once—particularly in the world of dating and relationships, that has no doubt been the primary beneficiary of view once photos and videos. There’s also just no need for my rambling in December 2023, to hang around in people’s backups and chat threads for the next decade or two.
2024 promises to be a huge year for messaging innovation, as the battle between these hyper-scale platforms heats up. iMessage has promised some form of RCS compliance—finally, and Google is now building on its end-to-end encryption default for its Messages app with a raft of new features.
Set against the backdrop of an EU-driven push for such platforms to open and integrate, WhatsApp’s continued security innovation is very welcome.
This “is just another example of our continued privacy innovation,” WhatsApp says—I would agree.
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