Some users of free messaging service WhatsApp were panicking last week when news came out that the app was putting a permanent ban on those who were using unofficial third-party services. But a spokesperson from the service has said “there is no permanent ban”, but just a temporary one until the user has uninstalled the third-party client. What they are emphasizing is that they will continue blocking this “illegal” services, and has even served a cease-and-desist order to one of the more popular app makers.
The now Facebook-owned company started giving 24-hour bans earlier this year to users who are using third-party services like WhatsApp+ and WhatsAppMD because these are not authorized by the developer. They got back their official WhatsApp when they’ve uninstalled the “offending app” and then redownloaded the real one from their respective app stores. This was explained through an FAQ on the WhatsApp website. But suddenly, last week, a post on WhatsApp’s Google+ page said they have started a “Permanent Account Disable” which led to the “lifetime ban” stories that circulated on most websites.
However, what really happened was that users who have been warned more than once by the developer no longer saw the 24-hour clock that previously came with the temporary ban. However, after they’ve uninstalled the third-party app, then they can go back to using the official WhatsApp once again. There is no such thing as a “lifetime ban” as they would not really want to alienate their users.
But even now that that has been clarified, it still doesn’t remove the actual problem of the app vs users who just want to have more features than the official app is offering. As we said before, maybe WhatsApp should start listening to what their users want instead of just cracking down on these third-party services. Or as someone suggested in the comments section of our previous article, they should start working with these developers instead of against them.
VIA: Tech Crunch
