Since Monday, WhatsApp, the most instant messaging application used worldwide, banned through an update to their Android users, the shared links in conversations that could lead to Telegram, another popular service that keeps message exchange 62 million active users.
However, iOS users are not affected by the issue. According to The Verge, the situation was reported by Reddit users who concluded that the action taken by the company only affected Android users. They stated that any web address that was shared in WhatsApp conversations that included the word Telegram, was not activated as a link, while any other used variation, was allowed.
This means that the links, for example, Telegram.com, Telegram.es, Telegram.org Telegram.me didn’t worked. In addition, the application doesn’t allow selecting and sharing these messages.
Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov, posted in a tweet that almost 80% of its users are on Android, which would provide a possible explanation as to why WhatsApp would only block links on that platform.
The company Facebook, that acquired a year ago WhatsApp for about $ 19 billion, had previously used the link-blocking to Tsu.co, claiming that the social network encourages to “share spam”. The links were blocked in Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Instagram, though not on WhatsApp.
Source: My Tech Bits