Tech: Whatsapp will soon provide encrypted chat backups for Android, iOS users

Washington: WhatsApp, one of the most popular and widely used instant messaging platforms, is reported to roll out a new end-to-end encrypted chat backup feature for specific beta iOS and Android testers soon. As per Mashable, the new developments which are expected to roll out soon are reported to raise the level of security currently available on message backups. Last month, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg had taken to social media to announce that WhatsApp will be adding another layer of privacy and security which would be rolling out soon. Furthermore, he also added, "WhatsApp is the first global messaging service at this scale to offer end-to-end encrypted messaging and backups, and getting there was a really hard technical challenge that required an entirely new framework for key storage and cloud storage across operating systems." With the current option to encrypted backups on the cloud (Google Drive and iCloud) available to iOS and Android users, the new end-to-end encrypted chat backup feature will be available on WhatsApp beta for Android 2.21.15.5 and WhatsApp beta for iOS 2.21.200.14. But in order to use the feature, the user will have to create a password that would be required to restore and access the backup in the future. Furthermore, the new WhatsApp feature will protect the chat backups from third parties as well. Meanwhile, social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp faced an outage for the second time this week. Downdetector, a site that monitors reports of outages across the internet, said these app outages were reported for some global users. Facebook took to its Twitter handle to share: "We're aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience." Earlier on Monday, thousands of users reported that they were unable to access the services WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook for nearly six hours before services were restored. (ANI)