The Union Health Ministry has informed that the COVID-19 vaccination certificate can now be obtained via WhatsApp within seconds, in a bid to ease the process of obtaining a vaccination certificate.

The office of Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted on Sunday, “Revolutionising the common man’s life using technology! Now get #COVID19 vaccination certificate through MyGov Corona Helpdesk in 3 easy steps. Save contact number: 91 9013151515 Type & send ‘covid certificate’ on WhatsApp Enter OTP Get your certificate in seconds.”

How to get it:

1. Save the number +91 9013151515 on your phone. Go to WhatsApp and search for the MyGov Corona Helpdesk bot. Alternatively, you can head to open the MyGoV Corona Helpdesk Chatbot.
2. Type and send ‘COVID Certificate’ or ‘Download Certificate’ inside the chatbot on WhatsApp.
3. A six-digit OTP will be sent to the number, and it needs to be entered within 30 seconds.
4. The bot will show all the users registered on the CoWIN website with the number, and ask you to type the number of the user whose certificate you wish to download.
5. The certificate will be sent on WhatsApp in a PDF format, which you can easily download and print or save for future purposes.
6. The same steps can be followed for downloading the certificate for other users registered with the same number.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who has been attacking the government over its Covid management, praised it for deciding to deliver vaccination certificates via WhatsApp.

“I’ve always acknowledged and praised the government when it merits it. As a critic of Cowin, let me say they’ve done something terrific. Send a WhatsApp message ‘download certificate’ to 9013151515, receive OTP and get your vaccination certificate back by WhatsApp. Simple and fast!” Tharoor tweeted.

Cumulatively, 50,68,10,492 Covid vaccine doses have been administered in the country through 58,51,292 sessions, according to a provisional report till 7 am on Sunday, with 55,91,657 doses being given in a day.

Earlier, the COVID-19 vaccination certificate could be downloaded from Co-WIN Portal or Arogya Setu/Umang Mobile Application. It could be downloaded after each dose (Provisional Certificate after the first dose and Final Certificate after the second dose).

Five states, including Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have administered more than 1 crore cumulative doses of coronavirus vaccine in the age group 18-44 years.

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand and West Bengal also have vaccinated over 10 lakh beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years for the first dose of coronavirus vaccine.

 

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said that there is a growing need for “more companies, and, critically, governments, to take steps to hold NSO Group accountable,” and urged for a “global moratorium on the use of unaccountable surveillance technology now.” 

Pegasus has kicked off the debate around tracking individuals, including journalists, lawyers, and human rights activists in various countries. This new investigation, which was primarily based on a large information leak and was carried out by 16 media organisations together with India’s The Wire and international shops corresponding to The Washington Post and The Guardian NSOs Pegasus is used to “commit horrible human rights abuses” globally and “it must be stopped”, WhatsApp Head Will Cathcart stated on Twitter. India is discovered to be amongst greater than 50 nations the place the adware is believed for use as a cyber-surveillance weapon. 

In a series of tweets, Cathcart has put forward some points in a protracted thread on Twitter that human rights defenders, tech corporations, and governments should work collaboratively to extend personal safety and maintain the entities abusing the Pegasus adware accountable.

“This is a wake-up call for security on the Internet,” he stated. “The mobile is the primary computer for billions of people. Governments and companies must do everything they can to make it as secure as possible.”

He also tweeted that in 2019 Whatsapp fought back against the tool from NSO. “In 2019, WhatsApp discovered and defeated an attack from NSO. They rely on unknown vulnerabilities in mobile OSes, which is one of the reasons why we felt it was so important to raise awareness of what we’d found.” 

Cathcart added that in 2019, WhatsApp worked with CitizenLab, which identified over 100 cases of abusive targeting of human rights defenders and journalists in more than 20 countries. “But today’s reporting shows that the true scale of abuse is even larger, and with terrifying national security implications,” Cathcart adds. 

“We need more companies, and critically, governments, to take steps to hold NSO Group accountable,” he said. “Once again, we urge a global moratorium on the use of unaccountable surveillance technology now.”

According to the government of India, the story has been crafted in such a way that the conclusions are skewed “However, the questionnaire sent to the government of India indicates that the story being crafted is one that is not only bereft of facts but also founded in preconceived conclusions. It seems you are trying to play the role of an investigator, prosecutor as well as jury,” the government said in response to the Guardian about the latest NSO leak.

 

WhatsApp is launching out a new feature named ‘View Once’ which allows users to send media such as photos or videos that can be viewed once and will disappear once it has been viewed. This feature was revealed by Facebook and WhatsApp executives Mark Zuckerberg and Will Cathcart. If it is not clear then the App will also allow users to replay pictures and videos as in Snapchat.

According to a report by WABetaInfo, once the image or video is shared in this mode, the sender can keep a track of the status of the message. The sender will be able to check if the message has been delivered, seen and opened.

This new feature will be rolled out  WhatsApp beta for the Android 2.21.14.3 version. iOS Beta users will also get the feature soon. This feature will go through WaBetaInfo reported sharing screenshots that reveal users will be able to send expiring media by taking live snaps or choosing photos from their gallery.

The user can still manage such things by using another device. At WhatsApp, it is as safe as Snapchat even WhatsApp doesn’t notify the sender about it because it has a mechanism to disable capturing of screenshots. WhatsApp is slated to roll out other features soon like multi-device support with end-to-end encryption. Recently one can log in to a single account using your phone and computer, but the feature once enabled will let you use multiple devices at the same time.

On Tuesday The instant messaging app WhatsApp is going to multi-device support and will be launching soon. Mark Zuckerberg revealed this during a chat with Wabetainfo. According to a popular website Wabetainfo which gives instant updates on messaging app Whatsapp made an announcement on Twitter about a new update.

The popular messaging app Whatsapp is expected to bring multi-device support for beta testing in the next couple of months which will support the end to end encryption. It is claimed that it will protect photos, videos, text, voice messages and documents in a way that they aren’t accessible by anyone except the sender and receiver. 

This is also the primary reason WhatsApp did not comply with the government of India’s new IT rules which demanded to find the originator of a message. In an argument finding the originator would mean circumventing the end-to-end encryption. It would make WhatsApp go against its own policies. 

This new feature by the messaging app will permit individuals to operate a similar WhatsApp account on various gadgets simultaneously. It will provide multiple devices protection alongside syncing communication between them is not that easy and involves technical challenges in its implementation.

Regarding the multiple device support, Zuckerberg said, ” It’s been a big technical challenge to get all your messages and content to sync properly across devices even when your phone battery dies, but we’ve solved this and we’re looking forward to getting it out soon.”

The multi-device support will also enable WhatsApp to expand to more form factors, including the Apple iPad. The iPad is expected to get its own version of the app soon. Multi-gadget with different devices will allow users to interface up to four unique gadgets to the user’s main WhatsApp account. 

The Facebook-owned company is purportedly reestablishing the green colour notifications for its Android beta application. It had announced a new dark blue colour in notifications a few days back in the 2.21.12.12 beta update but the users weren’t happy with the update so WhatsApp decided to restore the old colour. 

Alongside enabling end-to-end encryption when using multi-device support, WhatsApp is expected to bring end-to-end encrypted backups. There is, however, no exact timeline on when it would be available even for public beta testers. 

Other than these, WhatsApp will launch more features, Mark Zuckerberg himself has confirmed some features mentioned above. It is important to note that WhatsApp already has the disappearing messages feature but Mark talks about unveiling the disappearing mode.

WhatsApp has reportedly restored green colour notifications for its Android beta app. WhatsApp started testing a dark blue colour for its notifications with the 2.21.12.12 beta update but it looks like that didn’t sit well with the beta users. The colour can be seen in the WhatsApp notifications for the app name, reply, and mark as reading buttons. Now that the Facebook-owned instant messaging service has decided to revert to its original colour scheme, the blue colour will likely not come to a stable release.

As per the latest report by WhatsApp feature tracker WABetaInfo, the messaging service was testing blue colour for its notifications on Android. With this implementation, the WhatsApp app name, ‘reply’, and ‘mark as reading’ options in the notification shade for Android users are using the beta version of the app was changed to dark blue instead of green. Now, according to the report, the colour has been reverted to green due to feedback from the users.

WABetaInfo says users of the beta version complained that the new colour wasn’t properly visible in notifications because of its contrast. Now that WhatsApp has decided to go back to the original green colour, it doesn’t look like the blue colour for notifications will be making its way to the stable release. Typically, WhatsApp tests new features in the app’s beta version and then, depending on response and functionality, brings them to the stable version.

Recently, WhatsApp added an amazing voice call feature for Jio Phone and other KaiOS-based feature phones. It works on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and needed an active mobile data or Wi-Fi connection. And last week, it was reported that WhatsApp is testing the Flash Call feature that quickly lets users log into their accounts. Instead of the six-digit code, WhatsApp will reportedly make a flash call to their user for verification.