Starting from today onwards, users in WhatsApp beta program will be getting to see a new sharing option below their status. This feature allows you to post a status directly to Facebook and other apps like Instagram, Facebook, Gmail, and Google photos.
According to The Verge, “WhatsApp won’t require users to directly link their Facebook account to the chat app in order to port their Status to their Story. Instead, the transfer is made via the data-sharing API used by iOS and Android. While the content will be shared across apps on a person’s device, the accounts won’t be linked. There is also no option to automatically share a Status to another platform — users will have to actively choose to share it.”
Even if you you are sharing data your to any other Facebook-owned service like Instagram, Whatsapp explains, “The two posts would show as separate events in the Facebook system and they will not be linked like the others. There is also no option to have your WhatsApp status automatically shared to another service, WhatsApp said that it wants the feature to be an active decision on the part of the user.”
WhatsApp and Facebook have already been under scrutiny for breaking its promise of not sharing data between the two services therefore , this new feature might make regulators take another closer look. Status sharing will also mean that those posts will no longer be momentary since there may be no way for WhatsApp to “take back” whatever was posted after 24 hours. If it could, then that might be yet another reason to be concerned.