Messaging & calls app
Free messaging and calls from Meta, encrypted end to end by default.
WhatsApp is a messaging app for text, voice notes, photos, video calls and group chats. You sign up with a phone number rather than an email address, and your contacts who use WhatsApp appear in the app on their own.
The app is free and has no adverts in chats. Every message and call is encrypted end to end, which means only the people in the conversation can read or hear it, and that has been the default since 2016. Meta has owned WhatsApp since 2014.
Your account lives on your phone. WhatsApp Web, the desktop apps and an iPad can be linked to it, and chat history is backed up separately from the rest of the phone, to iCloud on an iPhone or Google Drive on Android.
01Is WhatsApp free?
WhatsApp is free, with no subscription and no ads in your chats. Messages and calls use your internet connection, so on mobile data they count towards your data allowance. Small businesses can use the free WhatsApp Business app; companies that message customers at scale pay through the WhatsApp Business Platform.
02How to start using WhatsApp
- 1
Install WhatsApp from the App Store or Google Play and open it.
- 2
Enter your phone number, then the six-digit code that arrives by text message or call.
- 3
Add your name and, if you like, a photo. Allow access to your contacts to see which of them use WhatsApp.
- 4
Tap a contact to start a chat, or start a group with how to create a WhatsApp group.
- 5
Turn on chat backup to iCloud or Google Drive in Settings, Chats, Chat backup, so a new phone gets your history.
03Is WhatsApp safe?
Encryption
Every chat and call is end-to-end encrypted by default. Backups are not, unless you turn on end-to-end encrypted backup in the same Chat backup menu.
Account takeover
Turn on Two-step verification in Settings, Account to add a PIN. Never share the six-digit registration code: scammers ask for it to take over accounts.
Who can see and add you
In Settings, Privacy, choose who sees your profile photo and last seen, and who can add you to groups.
Age
You must be at least 13 to use WhatsApp, or older where local law requires it.
