You can do plenty with WhatsApp, including chatting and calling your friends and family.
WhatsApp even lets you start a group video call to bring all your friends to catch up during the weekend.
Many users are concerned about the video call’s security and privacy when enjoying the video call.
Can someone intercept the WhatsApp video chat? Is it safe to use WhatsApp video chat?
When using any application, security is vital. WhatsApp employs an end-to-end encryption algorithm so only the sender and receiver can decode the shared message. So, whether texting or calling, your data is encrypted; even if someone can intercept it, they can’t decode it. However, your phone can be exploited, and someone can install a spy app to monitor your video chat. So, whether WhatsApp video chat is 100% secure is a debatable topic.
We will present the steps for initiating a WhatsApp call. From there, we will discuss how safe WhatsApp video chat is and the factors that can compromise your safety when using WhatsApp video chat. Ready? Let’s take a look!
How To Make a WhatsApp Video Call
As a messaging application, WhatsApp lets you chat with friends or make audio or video calls to them. WhatsApp introduced video calls to ensure it competes favorably with other platforms like Skype.
With a video call, you can engage more with a person or a group to share ideas and network better.
Making a WhatsApp video call is an easy task.
- Open WhatsApp on your phone.
- Tap on the “Calls” tab.
- Tap on the phone icon with a plus at the bottom.
- Tap the “New group call” option and select your friends for a group call.
- Otherwise, scroll down and find the contact you want to call, then click the video camera icon to start the WhatsApp video chat.
When the person you call accepts the call, you can see each other on the screen and interact for as long as you want, provided you have an internet connection.
How Safe is WhatsApp Video Chat?
The safety of a WhatsApp video chat is a common worry among many users. There is plenty you can do and share during a WhatsApp video call, and when you don’t have the guarantee that your WhatsApp video call is safe, you will feel uneasy.
A data breach of WhatsApp video calls can expose a lot. Since most WhatsApp video chats contain sensitive data, you wouldn’t want someone to intercept or hack into your WhatsApp video call.
WhatsApp enforces end-to-end encryption for its calls and chats.
End-to-end encryption means your communication on WhatsApp is secure, and even the WhatsApp team can’t access it.
Ideally, with end-to-end encryption, only the sender and receiver can access the contents of the shared video chat.
Here’s the thing: your WhatsApp video call will be encoded before it leaves your phone, such that the packets are encoded while in transit so that an intermediary can’t decode it.
When the packets reach the receiver’s end, they will get decoded and converted into human form. You will see the notification for the end-to-end encryption on the home screen of your WhatsApp.
Again, WhatsApp doesn’t store the data for a WhatsApp video chat on its servers, as it does for texts. So, you are assured that once you make and end your WhatsApp video chat, that’s it!
Your WhatsApp video chat is secure and safe, away from the hacker’s eye.
How Can a WhatsApp Video Chat Be Compromised?
Some loopholes can be exploited to compromise your safety and privacy during a WhatsApp video chat. Although WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption, it doesn’t extend to securing your phone.
So, if someone can install a spy app on your phone, they can see it to screen record your phone while in a WhatsApp video chat.
Again, if a hacker sends you malicious links and you tap on them, you create a loophole to compromise your WhatsApp video chat.
Sometimes, if you use an insecure network for your WhatsApp video chat, an attacker can sniff the network and access your WhatsApp video chat in an encrypted format.
With time and resources, the attacker can decrypt the content and access your WhatsApp video chat.
As a user, you must ensure you don’t install malicious apps or click on any shared links. That way, you will remain safe when using WhatsApp video chat.
Conclusion
WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption.
Your WhatsApp video chat is encrypted; only the receiver can decrypt it. That’s how secure WhatsApp video chat is.
However, your phone can be targeted and used to compromise your WhatsApp video chat through malicious apps.
We’ve discussed WhatsApp video chat, from how to make a call to how secure it is.
