WhatsApp testing feature to share status with other apps

Popular instant messaging platform WhatsApp is testing a feature that will allow users to share posts from their WhatsApp status with other apps. If you have enrolled yourself for WhatsApp beta programme, you will be able to see a new sharing option below your status, that can be used to post a status directly as your Facebook story or you can send it to other apps including Instagram, Gmail, or Google Photos.

Status works similar to the Instagram Stories-style feature that allows consumers to post images, text, and videos on their profile that disappear after 24 hours.

And while there exists a direct link that lets you share your status to Facebook, the messaging platform isn’t linking your accounts on the two services. Instead, the app is using iOS and Android data-sharing APIs, meaning data transfer happens between the apps on-device. According to WhatsApp, even if a user shares data to another service owned by Facebook such as Instagram, the two posts will be separate events in Facebook’s systems, and they will not be linked.

The messaging service doesn’t want the status to be shared automatically to other services, instead the platform wants the feature to work as an active decision made by a user to share the status.

In 2014, when Facebook acquired WhatsApp, the instant messaging platform promised not to share data with Facebook and the app would function independently, but this changed in 2016 when the messaging platform started sharing user data with Facebook. To stop this practice, Facebook was fined $122 million by the European commission over data sharing.

Till now WhatsApp status sharing isn’t sharing any of the user data that can put Facebook into trouble. But, the move to link all the services together can pose a threat to user data. WhatsApp Status is now being used by over 500 million users daily.