WhatsApp Defends its End to End Encryption as it Passes 2 Billion User Mark

WhatsApp, the popular social network revealed that they have crossed the 2 billion user mark.

The messaging service is now only second to Facebook itself in the number of users around the world. It has taken WhatsApp 2 years to add 500 million users and it is not slowing down any time soon.

This follows a report last month where it was revealed that WhatsApp had crossed the 5 billion install mark on the PlayStore. It was the 10th app to do so and only second to Facebook in that elite league of multi billion user installs.

You can understand how important WhatsApp is to Facebook. They bought the app for $19 billion which seemed like an insane number at the time. It had 450 million users and it was adding millions of users every quarter. They wanted to start placing ads on WhatsApp Status this year but they ended up shelving them.

Facebook also took the time to boast WhatsApp’s end to end encryption during the announcement. “This is why every private message sent using WhatsApp is secured with end to end encryption by default,” they said. “Strong encryption is a necessity in modern life. We will not compromise on security because that would make people less safe. We work with top security experts, employ industry leading technology to stop misuse as well as provide controls and ways to report issues– without sacrificing privacy.”

WhatsApp has had its share of problems regarding encryption. Recently, Jeff Bezos’s phone was reportedly hacked through an infected WhatsApp file. Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov has never been a fan of WhatsApp’s claim of end to end encryption and has written extensively about it. So it is interesting to see why Facebook is keen to reaffirm that their encryption is strong and reliable.