How WhatsApp works [2020 guide]
By now everyone knows WhatsApp, or rather, everyone has heard of it but there are still many people who do not know how to fully exploit this application. This is the reason why, today, at the request of numerous friends, I am here and I have decided to propose a guide on how WhatsApp works.
During this tutorial, we will analyze all the most important functions of WhatsApp and discover, together, how to send messages, photos, and other multimedia contents with this famous app. I assure you it is much simpler than you imagine. It does not matter if you are not a "technological" type and/or you are not very familiar with smartphones, you just have to take a few minutes of free time and try to follow the instructions below. You will be able to do it all in a surprisingly simple way, I assure you.
So, are you ready to go? Well, then grab your phone, download WhatsApp (if you don't know how don't worry, we'll see how to do it shortly), and get ready to surprise friends, relatives, and colleagues by showing unexpected knowledge of this application.
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What is WhatsApp?
How WhatsApp works
Let's start with a brief description of WhatsApp and its main features. WhatsApp is a multi-platform messaging application that allows you to send messages, photos, videos, documents, and voice recordings to other users via the Internet using your phone number as an identifier. It is compatible with Android, iOS, and Windows Phone and works independently of the operating system used by users. This means that if you have an Android smartphone you can also communicate with those who use iPhone and Windows Phone, and vice versa.
There are also computer clients that allow you to use WhatsApp on Windows and macOS, but they are always linked to the smartphone, that is, they can only be used if the smartphone on which WhatsApp is installed is turned on and connected to the Internet (not necessarily to the same Wi-Fi, 3G / LTE connection is fine too).
How much does WhatsApp cost?
WhatsApp is 100% free. Sending messages, photos and videos is totally free (excluding, of course, the cost of data traffic when browsing in 3G / LTE). Until recently, there was an annual fee of 0.89 euros after the first 12 months of using the application, but since January 2016 the service has become completely free and therefore you don't have to pay even a cent.
The accounts have no expiration date and there are no extra features that can be unlocked for a fee, all the messages that invite you to buy WhatsApp or herald its transformation into a paid application are to be considered a scam.
How does WhatsApp work?
To understand how WhatsApp works from a technical point of view, it must be said that the application uses a customized XMPP server with proprietary extensions. XMPP is - as Wikipedia explains perfectly well - a set of open XML-based instant messaging protocols, which is spread over thousands of servers throughout the Internet. WhatsApp messages are sent from the client (ie from the application that the user has installed on their smartphone) to the service server, which sends a confirmation "signal", which in the app is signaled as a single sign of check green, and then to deliver the message to the recipient (as soon as the latter's client is active).
When the message arrives at its destination, the server sends a second confirmation to the sender's application by showing the desired icon with the two checkmarks. The two blue ticks, on the other hand, signal the reading of the message by the recipient.
As mentioned above, the authentication of users on WhatsApp takes place through their phone number, which is associated with a password generated automatically by the system (which you do not need to type, access occurs automatically via a phone number).
Is WhatsApp safe?
WhatsApp protects users' privacy through a system called end-to-end encryption. With end-to-end encryption, user messages are encrypted with a system consisting of two keys: a public key that is shared with your interlocutor and is used to encrypt outgoing messages, and a private key that resides on the smartphone of each user and allows to decrypt incoming communications. With this system, messages arrive on WhatsApp servers in encrypted form and their content can only be read by legitimate senders and recipients.
In short, WhatsApp is to be considered a reasonably safe application. Unfortunately, however, it is a closed source application, it is not possible to thoroughly inspect the source code and therefore no one can know if the implementation of end-to-end encryption is flawless. Furthermore, it must be said that WhatsApp reserves the right to keep all the metadata of the conversations: the "names" of those who send the messages, the times at which communications are delivered, etc. and that by keeping the cloud backup function active, messages are stored on Google (if you are using Android) or Apple (if you are using iPhone) servers.
Moral of the story: WhatsApp can be used safely to exchange messages with your friends, relatives, and work colleagues, but it is better not to use it for communications that contain priceless secrets (but this applies to all systems of online messaging!).
How to install WhatsApp?
Installing WhatsApp on your smartphone is really a breeze. All you have to do is open the store of your mobile, search for WhatsApp within the latter, and press the download button. Let's take some practical examples.
If you are using an Android terminal, open the Google Play Store (the shopping bag icon with the "play" symbol printed in the center), press the magnifying glass icon located at the top right, and search for WhatsApp. Then, select the application icon from the search results (the green balloon with the white handset inside) and press the Install and Accept buttons to start the installation of WhatsApp on your smartphone.
How WhatsApp works
If you have a phone on which the Google Play Store is not present, open the browser and download WhatsApp "manually" by connecting to the site whatsapp.com/androidand pressing the Download Now button. If you are asked which app to download the WhatsApp installation file with, choose your browser. When the download is complete, open the package from the notifications menu or from the Android Download app and press the Install button to complete the WhatsApp installation. If an error message appears, activate support for apps from unknown sources (i.e. from sites other than the Google Play Store) by going to the Settings> Security menu of your smartphone.WhatsApp.apk
The procedure to follow on the iPhone is just as simple. If you have an Apple-branded smartphone, start the App Store (the blue icon with the letter “A” in the center), select the Search tab located at the bottom right, and search for WhatsApp in the latter. In the screen that opens, locate the WhatsApp icon (the green cartoon with the white handset inside), press the Get / Install button next to it and the download will start immediately. You may be asked to authenticate using your Apple ID password or Touch ID.
Do you have a Windows Phone? No problem, installing WhatsApp is also very simple on the Microsoft operating system. All you have to do is open the Windows Phone Store (the shopping bag icon with the Windows flag "printed" in the center), press the magnifying glass icon located at the bottom center, and search for WhatsApp on the screen that opens. Subsequently, select the WhatsApp icon and start the installation by pressing the Install button. That's all!
How to sign up for WhatsApp
After downloading WhatsApp on your smartphone, start the application, and create your personal account following the wizard that is proposed to you. The first step you must take is to accept the conditions of use of WhatsApp by pressing the Accept and continue button, then you must type your mobile number and you must "tap" first on the Next / End button and then on OK to start the verification of your number.
Verifying the number consists of receiving a confirmation code via SMS that you must type in the screen that opens. If you do not receive any SMS, wait for the 5-minute countdown to come to an end and press the Call me button to receive the verification code by voice (via a phone call made by the automatic WhatsApp services).
Finally, go ahead, set the name and profile photo you want to use on WhatsApp and that's it. You can already start exchanging messages with your friends, relatives, and work colleagues who are subscribed to WhatsApp. The contacts are automatically taken from the phone book, so if your friends use WhatsApp you will automatically find them in the contact list of the application (if you have an iPhone you must answer in the affirmative to the request for access to the address book by the application).
To start a conversation with a friend on WhatsApp, go to the Chat tab of the application and press the sheet icon located at the top right. Then select the name of the person to contact and that's it.
In the WhatsApp message composition screen, you will find everything you need to communicate with your contacts: in the lower center there is the text field in which to type text messages; at the bottom right there are the icons of the camera and microphone that allow, respectively, to share photos/videos and send voice messages; on the top right there is the paper clip icon that allows you to share PDF files, contacts, geographic locations and photos/videos (on iPhone instead of the paper clip there is an arrow icon located at the bottom left) and always at the top right there is the handset icon that allows you to make voice calls over the Internet (at no cost).
You can also create groups with up to 50 participants in which to share messages and multimedia content. To create a group, go to the Chat tab of WhatsApp, press the sheet icon located at the top right, and select the item New group / Create a new group from the screen that opens. To participate in already active groups you have to wait for the invitation from the administrator (the only one able to bring in new participants).
How to protect privacy on WhatsApp
Do you want to know how WhatsApp works from the point of view of privacy and security? Then you have to recent in the Settings of the app and select the Account> Privacy items from the latter. If you do not know how to access the app settings, press the (...) button located at the top right on Android and at the bottom right on Windows Phone and select the Settings item from the menu that appears. On the iPhone instead of the button (...), there is the Settings tab located in the lower right part of the screen.
In the privacy settings screen, you can choose who to show your profile photo (everyone, just friends or nobody), your status, and the time of your last access to the service. By activating or deactivating the option relating to reading receipts, you can activate or deactivate the display of the blue ticks that indicate the reading of a message by the user.
Furthermore, by going to the Blocked / Blocked Contacts section of the menu and pressing the icon of the little man located at the top right (or on the Add button if you use an iPhone) you can choose a person from your contacts and block them so that they do not can no longer disturb or see when you are online. Find more details on this feature in my guide on how to block on WhatsApp.
Warning: the settings relating to the blue ticks and the display of the last access have a reciprocity relationship, this means that if you deactivate them, you will not be able to see the blue ticks and the last access time of your friends anymore.
Another way to "keep WhatsApp good" and make it less annoying is to adjust notifications in the Settings> Notifications menu. You can choose under which circumstances to play sounds, which sounds to play, and when to display notification messages on the phone screen. Find all the details in my tutorial on how to change WhatsApp ringtone.
Finally, I point out my guide on how to customize WhatsApp in which I explained how to change your profile picture, background, and other preferences within WhatsApp, read it and you will not regret it.
How to backup WhatsApp
Another key aspect of security on WhatsApp is saving your conversations. Perhaps not everyone knows this but it is possible to make a backup of the messages by going to Settings> Chat and selecting the item Chat Backup. At this point, it is possible to choose whether to immediately start saving data ( Back up button ) or to set an automatic backup on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis (using the appropriate menu at the bottom).
The conversations are automatically uploaded to the cloud, to be precise they are saved to Google Drive if you are using an Android terminal and to iCloud, if you are using an iPhone. To restore them, you need to install (or reinstall) WhatsApp on a phone associated with the same phone number and Google / Apple account as the one on which the backup was generated. For more information on this feature, see my tutorial on how to recover WhatsApp backups.
How to use WhatsApp on PC
As mentioned at the beginning of the post, WhatsApp can also be used from the computer and there are even two ways to do it: the first is to connect to the WhatsApp Web website and use the service via the browser; the second instead involves the installation of a free program for Windows or macOS. In both cases, you must keep your smartphone (i.e. the smartphone on which WhatsApp is installed) turned on and connected to the Internet. The connection does not necessarily have to be the same as the one used by the PC, you can also connect in 3G / LTE.
Once logged in to WhatsApp Web or installed WhatsApp on Windows / macOS, to log in to your account go to the Settings> WhatsApp Web WhatsApp menu on your smartphone and scan the QR code that is displayed on the screen of the PC. For more information on the whole procedure read my tutorial on how to use WhatsApp on PC
How to use WhatsApp on tablets
Although it is not an application designed for tablets, WhatsApp can also be used on iPad and Android tablets. The secret - if we want to call it that - lies in the use of applications that enable the functioning of WhatsApp Web in the mobile environment, such as Messenger for iPad and Messenger Tablet for Android.
Alternatively, if you use an Android tablet with call support, you can install WhatsApp using the SIM number installed in the device (as if it were a smartphone) and use the application natively. Unfortunately, you cannot activate the application using your mobile number as there is a WhatsApp limit that requires the use of each number on a maximum of 1 device (in practice you would lose access from the phone).