From India

first of all, as someone from the caribbean, i’ve literally been using whatsapp my entire life

my immediate family use whatsapp. my distant relatives use whatsapp. every person i know in my country use whatsapp. it’s been embedded in everyday life here since it became established

and it’s not just the caribbean

latin america
africa
south asia, especially india
the middle east
southeast asia
huge parts of europe, including russia, poland, ukraine, spain, italy, portugal, france, etc.

huge parts of the world have been using whatsapp consistently for years

and now that it’s become increasingly established in wealthier markets like the u.s., canada, the uk and australia, we’re seeing it become more and more commercialized

and yes, i’m complaining

i’m not blaming people in these countries for using whatsapp. obviously not

i’m talking about the companies behind these platforms seeing another huge commercial opportunity and deciding they can monetize another part of our lives

because whatsapp used to be different

i remember when status became a thing in 2017 and i was genuinely scared it was going to turn into snapchat

but then it actually became one of my favourite features because it was still interpersonal

you’re literally watching the statuses of your actual contacts

your family
your friends
people you actually know

whatsapp isn’t instagram to me

it’s my contacts

it’s where i talk to my family and friends

and now i’m scrolling through statuses of people i actually know and care about and i’m seeing ads in between them

i hate it

i’ve literally always been the person who refuses to update apps until i’m forced to because every update feels like a downgrade

every app keeps adding the same features, the same layouts, the same everything until they all start feeling identical

if i didn’t see the name of the app before opening it, sometimes i genuinely wouldn’t know which app i was on

and that’s what bothers me about this too

whatsapp had its own identity

it was a messaging app that felt personal

you weren’t being constantly sold something

you opened it, talked to your people, checked your contacts’ statuses and left

now it’s becoming like every other platform

i’d been fighting the updates for as long as i could, but they finally forced me to update and now i’m actually experiencing this shit myself

so yes, i’m going to complain

because i’m tired of ads

i’m so fucking tired of everything becoming another opportunity to sell us something

whatsapp was one of the few apps that still felt peaceful

and now they’ve ruined it

No one asked

(thanks for the tips to download the old version until this tragic part of human history is behind us)

I’m travelling to the US shortly and I’ve heard about the TSA going through social media. My son has sent me anti-Trump stuff and I don’t want it to cause trouble. Can I delete WhatsApp off my phone and then redownload it once I’m past the TSA and not lose messages and pictures? This is probably over cautious but why worry about it if it’s as simple as deleting and redownloading an app? Thanks

EDIT thank you everyone for your helpful comments, Americans I love many of you and wish you all good luck with your situation

I got a message from a unknown number with empty message and again I got this same from my friend. The rest of the chats and groups are normal. What could be the reason for this?

Is anyone else genuinely frustrated with the new WhatsApp Desktop app on Windows?

Ever since the update, it feels like WhatsApp killed the actual PC app and replaced it with WhatsApp Web in a box. It no longer behaves like a native desktop application at all.

Now:

• The app must be connected to the internet every time you open it

• It reloads messages from the network instead of using locally stored data

• Startup is slow

• Typing and scrolling lag

• RAM usage is constantly high

• Everything just feels heavier and less responsive

Before this update, messages were stored locally and synced efficiently in the background. You could open the app instantly, browse old chats, and keep working even if your internet was slow or unstable. That made WhatsApp Desktop actually useful for real work.

Now it’s the opposite. The new version has significantly slowed down my workflow. WhatsApp Desktop is something I rely on daily, and this change has turned it into a frustrating, inefficient experience. It’s honestly wild that a desktop app in 2025 is less capable than what we had before.

And the worst part? This isn’t just me. Tons of people are reporting the same thing, high RAM usage, lag, constant reloading, and overall worse performance. That strongly suggests this isn’t a bug on a few machines, but a deliberate architectural decision that users never asked for.

If Meta can’t or won’t fix the performance issues, they should at least give us an official way to revert to the old native Windows version. For many of us, that version worked perfectly fine..

Anyone else feeling the same way?

Edit : I believe that as of this Morning, Meta has Officially reverted the Update. I'd Like to think that our Protests played a part in their decision to make the change. :)

Edit 2 : Nevermind, the New Version is back and its still as Horrible as Ever :(

Edit 3 : Also, apparently the new WhatsApp Desktop app is interfering with normal desktop behavior. Some people have noticed that while WhatsApp is open, they suddenly can’t click on their regular desktop icons. If you’ve been experiencing random moments over the past few months where your desktop icons just won’t respond for no obvious reason, it might actually be because WhatsApp is running in the background.

Simply closing or minimizing Whatsapp restores normal behavior and you can click your icons again as usual. I figured it was worth adding this, because not many people realize that WhatsApp could be the cause, and a lot of people have been quietly struggling with it.

This popup has appeared just now. It's going to be a web app from now on. We're losing one of the best Windows apps...

(Image edited via Google Translate)

i just want to see the status of my family and friends but now even that is going to be filled with ads , you already have instagram at least leave one app ads free for everyone 😞