Flash calls, message level reporting: WhatsApp’s new features for Indian users

WhatsApp continues to work on the app’s safety
features and India has seen an addition of two new measures – flash calls and
message level reporting. These come in addition to end to end encryption, control
over the kind of content shared and who to share it with, disappearing
messages, locking the app with Touch ID or Face ID as well as basic features like
being able to block unwanted contacts.

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The flash call feature will be used in addition
to the SMS verification option which is mandatory for a user to register
themselves on the app. While message level reporting will allow the users to report
accounts by flagging a specific message. The tech giants have said that the
decision to add these features has been made in order to ensure the safety and
security of all users of the application.

Flash call feature is set to make it even easier
for the user to register on the application while ensuring that the platform
becomes more secure.

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Users will be able to verify themselves
with an automated phone call instead of the traditional ordeal of receiving an
SMS message and then putting in the One Time Password for verification while
installing Whatsapp on a new phone or re-installing the application on a mobile
phone.

Initially the feature has been made
available for Android users only. This method will allow WhatsApp to eliminate
the need of using SMS verification. The app makes big claims about the safety
of the process by saying that the process is completed from within the app.

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Users will now be able to report a
particular message by long pressing it to either report or block the user who
sent it. The person will also be able to flag a specific message.

WhatsApp claimed to have banned over 2.2
million users in the month of September in its transparency report. Most of the
work was done by the automated tools that allow the company to trace fishy
accounts.