Whatsapp, a new symbol arrives. Here's what it means

Lately, more and more WhatsApp users and owners of Android smartphones have noticed a little news: a new icon has appeared whose meaning not everyone knows.
From now on, more and more customers who use the messaging app may notice a new padlock-shaped symbol under their name in chats.
But what exactly does that mean? Indeed, the shape of the padlock could confuse some users, who might think that their account is "blocked" or worse that they have accidentally blocked the chat.
In reality this symbol has nothing to do with all this, but rather represents a new level of safety.
Here's everything you need to know about the new padlock symbol on WhatsApp.
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As anticipated, in the chaos in which you find the shape of a padlock under your name, you shouldn't panic, since this icon does not indicate any type of chat “blocking”, far from it.
The padlock symbol in fact means that that chat is end-to-end encrypted.
This should be made clear by the addition of the words "End-to-End encrypted".
This means that conversations can only be read by those involved in the private chat or WhatsApp groups.
This tool prevents messages from being decrypted and sent over the network.
So, the company's servers, in this case WhatsApp, act as if they were "postmen" who cannot decipher the message they are carrying.
Therefore, not even WhatsApp will be able to read the chats of its users.
By choosing to encrypt all chats, the messaging app wants to signal its intent to focus more on the security of its users.
In fact, if on WhatsApp end-to-end encryption has been active in all chats since 2016, in other messenger apps it must be activated manually, such as on Telegram.
And sometimes it happens that due to forgetfulness or laziness, users do not protect their messages correctly.
So far, the reference to end-to-end encryption has not been visible in the regular app.
According to the WABetaInfo blog, the lock icon only appears in the 2.24.6.11 beta version of the app for Android phones.
But with one of the next updates the padlock could also easily appear on the rest of the devices that have the messaging app installed.
Furthermore, the padlock is not permanently visible under the name, but only for a few seconds.
Subsequently, WhatsApp will show the "last seen" status of your contact.
But the news doesn't end here.
Apart from the lock, WhatsApp is also planning to introduce a QR code icon and new buttons in the main menu, but more updates are still awaited for these.
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However, even encrypted conversations can be subject to certain vulnerabilities.
While it is true that end-to-end encryption is a technique that guarantees users the safety and protection of their chats, even in the event of an attack on the messaging app's servers, this does not mean that there are no breaches or weak points .
In fact, users should be aware that in some cases their chats may not be protected even if they have been encrypted.
The experts also explained it: if the user backs up their chats in the cloud, these will be stored unencrypted and therefore, in the event of an attack on their cloud they could theoretically also be read by prying eyes.
However, there is a solution to prevent this from happening: users just have to manually activate encryption for their backups in the settings.
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