Vikundi vya WhatsApp vinaendelea kukuunganisha na familia, marafiki, wafanyakazi wenzako, wanafunzi wenzako na zaidi. Vile watu wanavyotumia vikundi kwa mazungumzo muhimu, watumiaji wameomba udhibiti zaidi juu ya uzoefu wao. Leo, tunaanzisha mipangilio ya faragha mpya na mfumo wa kukaribisha ili kukusaidia kuamua ni nani anayeweza kukuongeza kwenye vikundi.

Kuiwezesha, nenda kwenye Mipangilio ya programu yako, kisha gusa Akaunti > Faragha > Vikundi na chagua mojawapo ya hiari tatu: "Hakuna mtu", "Waasiliani Wangu", au "Kila Mtu". "Hakuna mtu" inamaanisha utahitaji kutoa idhini ya kujiunga na kila kikundi ulichoalikwa, na "Waasiliani Wangu" inamaanisha waasiliani wako tu walio kwenye kitabu chako cha anwani wanaweza kukuongeza kwenye vikundi.

Kwenye kesi hizo, mtu anayekualika kwenye kikundi atatakiwa kutuma mwaliko wa faragha kwa kupitia soga ya kibinafsi, kukupa hiari ya kujiunga na kikundi hicho. Utakuwa na siku tatu za kukubali mwaliko kabla ya muda wake kuisha.

Kwa vipengele hivi vipya, watumiaji watakuwa na udhibiti zaidi wa jumbe za kikundi wanazopokea. Mipangilio hii mpya ya faragha itaanza kuwezeshwa kwa watumiaji wengine kuanzia leo na itakuwa inapatikana duniani kote katika wiki zijazo kwa wale wanaotumia toleo la karibuni la WhatsApp.

Mojawapo ya maombi ya mara kwa mara tumeyasikia kutoka kwa wamiliki wa biashara ndogo ni wanataka kutumia Programu ya WhatsApp Business kwenye kifaa cha chaguo lao.

Sasa wanaweza.

Leo tunawajulisha kwa Programu ya WhatsApp Business ya iOS. Kama toleo la Android - ambayo kwa mwaka uliopita inatumiwa na mamilioni ya biashara duniani kote - Programu ya Biashara ya WhatsApp ya iOS itakuwa bure kupakua kutoka kwenye Duka la Programu la Apple na itajumuisha vipengele vya kusaidia biashara ndogo na wateja kuwasiliana. Haya ni pamoja na:

• Jalada la Biashara: Shirikisha habari muhimu kuhusu biashara yako kama maelezo ya biashara, barua pepe au anwani za duka, na tovuti.
• Zana za Ujumbe: Wajibu kwa wateja kwa urahisi na zana za ujumbe za ufanisi - majibu ya haraka kutoa majibu ya haraka kwa maswali yanayoulizwa mara kwa mara, jumbe za salamu kuwajulisha wateja kwa biashara yako na jumbe za kuwa mbali kuwajulisha wakati wa kutarajia jibu.
• WhatsApp Web: Piga soga kutoka kwenye desktop yako ili kudhibiti mazungumzo na kutuma faili kwa wateja.

Programu ya WhatsApp Business inapatikana leo na hupakuliwa kutoka kwenye Duka la Programu nchini Brazil, Ujerumani, Indonesia, India, Meksiko, U.K. na U.S. Programu itajulishwa duniani kote katika wiki zijazo.

Hata kama ni duka la vitu vitamu la mtandao huko Ribeirão Preto, Brazil ambayo inafikia asilimia 60 ya mauzo yake kupitia WhatsApp Biashara au kampuni ya vitafunio vya mdalasini iliyopo Tijuana, Meksiko ambayo inasifia WhatsApp Biashara kwa kuisababisha ifungue eneo la pili, wamiliki wa biashara ndogo duniani kote wanatumia programu kukua. Tunafurahi kuleta programu ya WhatsApp Business kwenye biashara ndogo zaidi na kusikia hadithi mpya kuhusu jinsi inavyowasaidia kufanikiwa.

Ni miaka 10 tangu tuanze WhatsApp! Katika kipindi cha miaka kumi iliyopita, tumesikia kutoka kwa watu duniani kote ambao wanatumia WhatsApp kuendelea kuwasiliana na wapendwa wao, kuungana na jamii zao, na kujenga biashara. Hadithi hizi zinaendelea kututia moyo, na kusherehekea jambo hili muhimu, tunaangalia matukio makubwa yaliyotokea katika miaka iliyopita.

Tunafurahia kuendelea kujenga vipengele vinavyofanya WhatsApp iwe rahisi na ya kutegemewa na kila mtu. Asante kwa watumiaji wetu wote kote duniani kwa kuungana nasi katika safari hii!

Katika WhatsApp tunajali sana ujumbe wa kibinafsi, na leo tunafurahi kutambulisha Touch ID na Face ID kwenye iPhone ili kumzuia mtu kuchukua simu yako na kusoma jumbe zako.

Kuwezesha kipengele hiki cha iPhone kwenye WhatsApp, gusa Mipangilio > Akaunti > Faragha > Kufunga Skrini na kuwezesha Touch ID au Face ID. Una hiari ya kuchagua muda kabla ya Touch ID au Face ID kuwezeshwa baada ya WhatsApp kufungwa.

Kipengele hiki kinapatikana kwenye iPhone 5s au ya baadaye na inayotumia iOS 9 na zaidi kuanzia leo.

Mnamo Januari mwaka jana tulianzisha programu ya WhatsApp Business, na sasa kuna biashara zaidi ya milioni tano zinazoitumia ili kuwasaidia wateja, kukuza biashara zao na kutumikia jumuiya zao duniani kote. Tunafurahi kwamba tumeisaidia kukuza mamilioni ya biashara. Kwa mfano, nchini India, Glassic ambayo ni aina ya miwani kutoka Bengalaru - imetuambia kwamba asilimia 30 ya mauzo yake mapya yamezalishwa kwa njia ya WhatsApp Business.

Ili kusaidia kusherehekea mwaka wa kwanza wa WhatsApp Business, tunatangaza kwamba baadhi ya vipengele vyetu maarufu zaidi sasa vinaweza kutumika kwenye Whatsapp Web na Desktop. Makala haya ni pamoja na:

• Jibu haraka: Hizi ni jumbe zinazotumiwa mara nyingi kujibu maswali ya kawaida. Bonyeza tu "/" kwenye kicharazio chako ili kuchagua jibu la haraka na kutuma.
• Lebo: Panga waasiliani wako au soga zenye lebo, ili uweze kuzipata tena.
• Orodha ya Kuchuja Soga: Udhibiti kwa urahisi soga zako na vichujio ili kupanga kwa soga usizosoma, vikundi au orodha za matangazo.

Kutumia vipengele hivi kwenye kompyuta husaidia biashara kuokoa muda na kurudi kwa wateja wao haraka. Tunafurahi kuendelea kukuza WhatsApp Business na kuanzisha vipengele vipya vinavyofanya iwe rahisi kwa wateja kupata na kushirikiana na biashara ambazo ni muhimu kwao.

From emoji and camera features to Status and animated GIFs, we’re always looking to add new features that make communicating with friends and family on WhatsApp easy and fun. Today, we’re excited to introduce a new way for people to express themselves with stickers.

Whether with a smiling teacup or a crying broken heart, stickers help you share your feelings in a way that you can't always express with words. To start, we're launching sticker packs created by our designers at WhatsApp and a selection of stickers from other artists.

We've also added support for third-party sticker packs to allow designers and developers around the world to create stickers for WhatsApp. To do this, we've included a set of APIs and interfaces that allow you to build sticker apps that add stickers to WhatsApp on Android or iOS. You can publish your sticker app like any other app to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, and users who download and install your app will be able to start sending those stickers right from within WhatsApp. You can learn more about creating your own sticker apps for WhatsApp here.

To use stickers in a chat, simply tap the new sticker button and select the sticker you want to share. You can add new sticker packs by tapping the plus icon.

Stickers will be available for Android and iPhone over the coming weeks. We hope you enjoy them!

For the first time, WhatsApp will be available for JioPhone across India. WhatsApp built a new version of its private messaging app for JioPhone, running the KaiOS operating system, to give people a simple, reliable, and secure way to communicate with friends and family.

The new app offers the best of WhatsApp including fast and reliable messaging and the ability to send photos and videos — all end-to-end encrypted. It's also easy to record and send voice messages with just couple taps on the keypad. To get started, JioPhone users only need to verify their phone number and then they can begin chatting with other WhatsApp users one-on-one or in groups.

WhatsApp is available in the JioPhone AppStore starting today. You can download WhatsApp on both the JioPhone and the JioPhone 2 by visiting the AppStore and clicking Download.

As we announced last year, WhatsApp is building new tools to help people and businesses communicate with each other. Since we launched the WhatsApp Business app people have told us that it's quicker and easier to chat with a business than making a call or sending an e-mail. Today we are expanding our support for businesses that need more powerful tools to communicate with their customers.

Here's how people can connect with a business:

• Request helpful information: When you need a shipping confirmation or boarding pass, you can give your mobile number to a business on their website, on their app, or in their store to send you information on WhatsApp.
• Start a conversation: You may see a click-to-chat button on a website or Facebook ad to quickly message a business.
• Get support: Some businesses may provide real-time support on WhatsApp to answer questions about their products or help you resolve an issue.

With this approach, you will continue to have full control over the messages you receive. Businesses will pay to send certain messages so they are selective and your chats don't get cluttered. In addition, messages will remain end-to-end encrypted and you can block any business with the tap of a button.

We will bring more businesses onto WhatsApp over a period of time. To do so, we will work directly with a few hundred businesses and a select number of companies that specialize in managing customer communications.

If you are interested in how a business can start using these new tools, you can learn more here. As always, we will be listening carefully to feedback as we go forward.

Over the last couple years, people have enjoyed making voice and video calls on WhatsApp. In fact, our users spend over 2 billion minutes on calls per day. We're excited to announce that group calls for voice and video are coming to WhatsApp starting today.

You can make a group call with up to four people total - anytime and anywhere. Just start a one-on-one voice or video call and tap the new "add participant" button in the top right corner to add more contacts to the call.

Group calls are always end-to-end encrypted, and we've designed calling to work reliably around the world in different network conditions. The feature is currently rolling out on the iPhone and Android versions of our app.

We built WhatsApp as a private messaging app - a simple, secure, and reliable way to communicate with friends and family. And as we've added new features, we've been careful to try and keep that feeling of intimacy, which people say they love.

A few years back we added a feature to WhatsApp that lets you forward a message to multiple chats at once.

Today, we're launching a test to limit forwarding that will apply to everyone using WhatsApp. In India - where people forward more messages, photos, and videos than any other country in the world - we'll also test a lower limit of 5 chats at once and we'll remove the quick forward button next to media messages.

We believe that these changes - which we'll continue to evaluate - will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app.

We are deeply committed to your safety and privacy which is why WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, and we'll continue to improve our app with features like this one. For more information, please visit our WhatsApp Safety Tips page.

UPDATE: WhatsApp carefully evaluated this test and listened to user feedback over a six-month period. The forward limit significantly reduced forwarded messages around the world. Starting today, all users on the latest versions of WhatsApp can now forward to only five chats at once, which will help keep WhatsApp focused on private messaging with close contacts. We'll continue to listen to user feedback about their experience, and over time, look for new ways of addressing viral content.

Last Updated: January 21, 2019