For each one of us who has encountered that seemingly shady link shared on a WhatsApp group or even on individual chats, WhatsApp is now armed to battle the spam link and fake news menace with its suspicious link detection. The team has started working on the feature to help us keep away from WhatsApp suspicious links. Needless to say, in the times we live in, with an alarming rise in the phenomenon of fake news and spamming all around, this feature is a bright spot.
Today, the feature has been rolled out to select users through the beta update and is slated for a wider release after it has been fully developed with all the necessary improvements. As the name suggests, the WhatsApp Suspicious Link detection will detect unknown links and warn users when they open the links by scrutinizing every shared/received link in order to find unusual characters and thereby putting up the alert. When one receives a message containing a link, WhatsApp thoroughly analyzes it to detect if it may redirect to a fake or alternative website, and if the link turns out to be spam, the message is first marked with a red label, intimating the user of the spam link, and then alerts the user again if he/she still tries to open the potentially suspicious link.
What’s more, and impressively enough, this analysis happens locally with no data sent to WhatsApp servers to find suspicious links. And WhatsApp is even trying to bring in more and more improvements in its upcoming versions, for example, a feature enabling the user to manually report a suspicious link in case it outsmart WhatsApp’s detection.
WhatsApp is working on advancing through the Google Play Beta Program to v2.18.206, the latest version being available on Android devices. So, for all the beta users, you can access the latest update from the Google Play Store.
The users are to stay tuned for further details, and as for spammers, beware!
