Most Zimbabweans have come to love and use WhatsApp almost on a daily basis. However, some find its features a little bit limited so they’ve turned to other alternatives. One such alternative is an app called GB WhatsApp and it offers people so much more than the official WhatsApp. Due to that, GB WhatsApp has seen a rise in popularity but is it really safe to use?
Why do people use GB WhatsApp?
Okay, before we get to if it is safe, let’s take a look at the features that the app has that have caused people to use it. In its early days, the main differentiating factor of the app was its custom look. Now, this wasn’t the first app to allow people to select custom themes and colors for their WhatsApp as another app called WhatsApp Plus had existed.
Unfortunately, WhatsApp Plus users were frequently blocked by the official WhatsApp and this saw the decline of that app. GB WhatsApp came to fill in that gap and ended up providing so much more without getting users banned. Among other features, the app allows people to hide the Blue ticks, preview image/video without loading, send a broadcast message to 600 people at once, and send 90 images at once.
Modded apps and WhatsApp
Right, just hang on we’ll get to the question if it is safe for use in a moment, we first need to get a clear picture of how GB WhatsApp provides all these features in order to know if it is safe. The app is a modded app which is basically an app that builds on top of the original app’s features through some added code.
Remember WhatsApp Plus, the app that we mentioned earlier that got people banned? It too was a modded app but the way they were doing it ended up getting them noticed by the official WhatsApp and that resulted in people using the app being banned. So how were they detected and why aren’t people using GB WhatsApp getting banned too?
The official app has something called WhatsApp core within it. This is like the heart of the app and it contains all the special capabilities of WhatsApp like encryption. If someone messes with that core in their modded app, then WhatsApp will know and take protective measures, I mean it’s their heart for crying out loud.
How does the app provide all that?
GB WhatsApp is careful enough not to mess with the core. What they do is alter the style files which are not protected in any app really to provide you with some of the unique design features we mentioned earlier. For some of those features, they have to alter some code outside the core which is not style files.
However, the way they do it is that they alter things that are probably already stored on your phone and then just trick the official WhatsApp server which manages the sending of messages and files. For example, things like the number of images that can be sent are probably controlled on your phone and not the server of the app in order to let the server focus on important tasks like encryption.
So this means that the developers of GB WhatsApp can probably just change that rule which is stored on your phone’s storage that says you can only send 30 images to 90 images and the official server’s of WhatsApp wouldn’t know what happened as that information is not sent there. So we kind of understand how it might be working, let’s get into whether it is safe or not.
So is GB WhatsApp safe to use?
The answer to that question is a solid maybe. The fact that users of the app are not getting banned means that the app is not violating the major values of the official WhatsApp so WhatsApp just lets them keep using it. However, just because people are getting banned doesn’t directly mean that it is safe or given a thumbs up from WhatsApp.
Any modded app is potentially not safe. In most cases, things that are nice to use and that come free often have a hidden cost to them. In this case, you and I probably don’t know what other code the developer of GB WhatsApp has placed in the app. For example, they might have code to spy on you and they can do that because you’ve given their app permissions to access your microphone, contacts, and storage with pictures etc.
Of course, the official WhatsApp could just be doing the same but because they are a company, they are held to a higher degree of accountability in regards to what they do. And given how WhatsApp has built a brand around protecting its user’s privacy, they cannot just do that without consequences.
There is a real risk that it’s not safe
Another thing of concern is that the app isn’t directly available from the Google Play Store. This might mean that they just don’t want it to be taken down due to Google seeing that it’s trying to fake as the official WhatsApp. Or it might mean that they know that their app won’t pass the security checks of Google Play Protect so they don’t put it because it might indeed have malicious code that spies on you.
Whether they are spying on you if you use GB WhatsApp, you probably won’t know. So use it knowing that there is a risk that they might be doing that. Let us know if you use it and whether you think it is safe? What exactly about GB WhatsApp do you like the most that have caused you to move away from the official WhatsApp?
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12 comments
Gb ndizvo
1)i can lock my chats n hide them and iyo gb yacho u can lock it no need for another app lock
2) can enable online toast to kno if my small house is online(online toast automatically alerts you when a person is online)
3)hide view status ( a person wont kno if u viewed their status)
4)status view toast (alerts you when someone sees your status
5) single tick (ukatumira msg yako inosvika iwe uchifunga kut ahina ndozokupindura pandinenge ndakuda
6) hide online status(instead of hiding my online status unobva yati last seen ####
just to name a few
This a very technically incorrect article. Every file in any Android app is protected by signing the app. You thus cannot modify files within a built apk without breaking the signature.
There is also no such thing as a Whatsapp core, that you allege GB Whatsapp has kept intact. The have taken the original Whatsapp, reversed it and modified it. That’s how modding works. And, not every limitation of an app is a setting in “phone storage”, some of them are hard-coded. This is hard-coded value is what is changed in the reversed source code.
As a firm security rule, all modded apps should ever be considered unsafe. Whatsapp not blocking GB Whatsapp is not an indication that the app doesn’t violate any terms and conditions. It just might be difficult to detect and block. Consider trying to block all Firefox browsers from your website, it seems trivial till Firefox users change their user-agents to those of other browsers.
A modded app, is a black box of another black box, and thus should never be trusted.
As a firm security rule, all modded apps should be considered unsafe..
Interesting.
the last time l used the whatsapp editions l ended up having my phone battery swelling had to buy a new 1. the app constantly keeps your phone online updating all activities on your whatsapp which l think it’s stupid and unnecessary, while doing so it’s draining your battery.
in my opinion l do not think GB is safe to be used on any device since no app developer has recommend using it
in order for them to develop GB some malwares were planted on the original whatsapp
data on a mobile device can never be secure it is generally open to everybody.
“in order for them to develop GB some malwares were planted on the original whatsapp”
woooow just woooow…and i suppose u hev concrete evidence to support this allegation
“in order for them to develop GB some malwares were planted on the original whatsapp”
woooow just woooow…and i suppose u hev concrete evidence to support this allegation
how do you think they will make money? they are such fools who spend time and money giving you a free product. You are the product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In latest version there is Ad.
I moved to Telegram. Safer secure and has the features I want. GB WhatsApp? Be careful of these modified apps
I love Telegram because it support bots
Safe or not safe. Who cares? Every day government agents are snooping on our conversations so it doesn’t matter. It only becomes a problem if they still our banking details and siphon money. But again, if you are in Zimbabwe what use will be Bonds to a hacker based in India or even South Africa?