BREAKING NEWS!
You may hear of popular news website that WhatsApp is working on a new version of its messaging client, called WhatsApp Plus. This is to provide users with more features. Beware! This is fake news!
WhatsApp Plus is not new and was launched previously. It is a modified version of WhatsApp for Android (Facebook owned) and was created by a Spanish developer in 2012. It is also known as WhatsApp+ or WhatsApp Plus Holo and has a blue icon. WhatsApp Plus has many features which includes the ability to change its look with new styles or visual themes.
The news report states that the new WhatsApp Plus will bring about new features that include hundreds of new themes, emoticons and the ability to change fonts. This is to make the app look and feel more personalized. There is also the claim that it would have better privacy.
If we talk about better privacy, as of last year, it was reported that only WhatsApp (Facebook owned) partnered with Open Whisper Systems, to offer end-to-end encryption for its messages.
WhatsApp Plus domain (see Definition) is not registered with WhatsApp, Inc. BGR reported that through their findings, it found that the WhatsApp Plus APK (Android Application Package – see Definition) has been circulating around the web, to find links with shady websites. This could mean that the app is communicating with illegitimate sources.
Readers, you are well advised not to download this app, or any apps that claim to be WhatsApp Plus. WhatsApp (Facebook owned) hasn’t launched any such app. If you do so, you are putting yourself at risk, as you may be compromising your mobile privacy and security.
Remember, cybercriminals will resort to any methods to entice you to download apps that will compromise your mobile device. Mobile device is a necessity, which is no longer utilized for phone calls and SMS’s, but has many other uses. So, be aware of what you download.
Source
- thehackernews.com.
- Softonic.com.
- BGR (acronym for Boy Genius Report).
Definition
- Domain – a domain name used to indentify one of more IP addresses. For example, extolcorp.com is a domain name. Domain names are used in URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) to identify particular web pages.
- Android Application Package (APK) – a type of archive file. It is a specific file format for Android smartphones that is used to install applications on it, with .apk as the file extension name.