WhatsApp is reportedly banning users who have installed the third party app WhatsApp Plus. Users, mostly from India, have posted the screenshots of the message they are getting which says that they are temporarily banned for 24 hours for “violating the terms of services”.
WhatsApp has posted the following as the reason for this sudden action on the official website in the FAQ section:
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.
While it’s mentioned that users will be able to use WhatsApp by installing the authorized app from Play Store, users who have done so told us that the ban was not removed. It seems that the ban will be lifted only after the 24 hour period. So, if you haven’t received the message, consider yourself lucky and install the authorized version from Play Store as soon as possible.
WhatsApp Plus, for those who don’t know, is an unauthorized app which uses the servers of WhatsApp – as mentioned by WhatsApp – and resembled the official app, but with some added features, themes and a better interface. In a way, it acted as a beta version in which better features were introduced before coming up in WhatsApp. For e.g. the voice recording option currently available in the authorized app was available on WhatsApp Plus since a long time. And the reason for its popularity is the customization that it offers. All of which will be a thing of past in some time now!
Source: WhatsApp
Sameer