Tag: third party apps

Using WhatsApp Plus Might Cost You a Temporary Ban from WhatsApp

Every now and then, you see a pop up notification warning you not to use apps from outside the Play Store; when you side-load apps you open yourself up to all sorts of malware.

WhastApp Plus is an unofficial app which uses WhatsApp’s name and server to get downloads without the company’s permission. There have been various rumors that the company is actually buying the unofficial app because of its popularity. However, WhatsApp has recently cleared the air by initiating a 24-hour ban on users of WhatsApp Plus.

WhatsApp, via FAQ section of it’s website, explained the situation and how the Plus version of messaging service has been running in bad faith.

WhatsApp Plus is an application that was not developed by WhatsApp, nor is it authorized by WhatsApp. The developers of WhatsApp Plus have no relationship to WhatsApp, and we do not support WhatsApp Plus. Please be aware that WhatsApp Plus contains source code which WhatsApp cannot guarantee as safe and that your private information is potentially being passed to 3rd parties without your knowledge or authorization.

Please uninstall your application and install an authorized version of WhatsApp from our website or Google Play. Then, you will be able to use WhatsApp.

The company cleared that the WhatsApp Plus was using its server and that it has banned the unofficial version completely. If you are banned, you have to uninstall the Plus version and have to reacquaint yourself with WhatsApp’s official app from their website or Play Store.

January 21, 2015
Microsoft Opens Up Outlook to Third-Party App Developers

Microsoft is opening its business-centric Office service to developers on a large scale this time around. Earlier this year, the software giant invited developers to make third-party apps for Office 365, and now that plan includes Outlook.com.

A new suite of APIs, which will soon be released by the company, will give developers tools to integrate into Microsoft’s webmail service and add features to everything from the Calendar to the Compose screen and Contacts. However, these apps won’t come to mainstream until spring 2015. Anyhow, the plan of the company to bring third-party apps holds some exciting promise and possibilities.

The company’s official blogpost reads : “Think about it: Whenever a customer reads or composes an email or calendar event, your app could be there, helping them get the job done. If you have a great idea for how our customers should interact with their email or calendar, now is the time to make it happen. Not only are these apps simple to build–they use open web technologies such as HTML and Javascript–but you can start building them today. To learn how to get started, check out ‘Mail apps for Outlook’ on MSDN and the Office Dev Center.”

Along with this, ‘Mail apps for Outlook’, which work on Exchange Server 2013, Outlook 2013, Outlook Web Access, and OWA for Devices, will soon work on Outlook.com too, bringing together some 400 million potential new users of app developers, and all without browser plugins or extensions.

Developers may come up with some truly useful apps that plug into not only Outlook.com, but also the rest of the Office 365 ecosystem, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. According to Microsoft, these apps will be cross-platform.

November 3, 2014
200,000 Snapchat Pictures Leaked, Company Blames Third-Party Apps

The whole point of photo sharing app Snapchat is that photos, once sent, are supposed to disappear. However, thousands of these pictures have reappeared when hackers posted a database of purported stolen Snapchat photos and videos on the 4Chan message board. 4Chan, earlier, housed the first leaked nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities.

As per reports, Snapchat has been breached of as many as 200,000 photos and videos, many of them extremely personal images. However, the company on Friday released a statement on Twitter saying, “Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our ToU. We can confirm that Snapchat’s servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks.”

Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our ToU.

— Snapchat (@Snapchat) October 10, 2014

Although Snapchat has been hacked before, this time it isn’t the company’s fault. Third party apps, such as SnapSave or SnapKeep, seem to be the source of the hacking. These apps let recipients of Snapchat messages save them permanently. According to the reports, 4chan users have downloaded 13 GB worth of photos and videos and are creating a database to search the stolen images.

Even Snapchat users who did not use third-party apps could be victims, said Patrick Wardle, director of research at crowd-source security startup Synack. “This is an interesting scenario because the sender of an image doesn’t know if the recipient is using a third party service like SnapSaved.com or other third party applications. Therefore, everyone who sends a message using SnapChat’s service could be at risk,” Wardle said.

In May, Snapchat settled charges with US regulators accusing it of deceiving customers by promising that photos on its service disappeared forever. According to the Federal Trade Commission, photos sent on Snapchat could be saved using several methods.

October 11, 2014