With over 2.5 billion people monthly users, there is no doubt that WhatsApp is the most prominent messaging mobile app of the present day. The Facebook-owned company has been battling with rival unsupported modes like WhatsApp Plus, GB WhatsApp, and more since 2019. In fact, by August 2019, the original GB WhatsApp developer shut down their operations only to be picked up by other developers later.
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Rivals such as Telegram have more functions, leading to the rising availability of third-party, modified versions of WhatsApp, that allow users to access extra features that the official app doesn’t have or has refused to implement even after all these years of existence.
Among the several features of these moded apps include; scheduling messages and create auto-replies; send a greater number of photos at the same time; and turn off the blue-tick message-receipt feature for incoming messages, while remaining able to see if others have read outgoing WhatsApps and also changing the theme of the app.
WhatsApp account “temporarily banned”?
If you receive a notification that your WhatsApp account has been “temporarily banned”, it may be because you are using an unauthorized version of the app. If after being temporarily banned you don’t start using the official version, your account could be permanently blocked. In a game of cat and mouse, developers of the modded version of these apps have come up with ways to create “anti-ban” functionality in these apps.
The Security Risk
According to WhatsApp, “Unsupported apps, such as WhatsApp Plus, GB WhatsApp, or apps that claim to move your WhatsApp chats between phones, are altered versions of WhatsApp. These unofficial apps are developed by third parties and violate our Terms of Service.”
The company also warns of the risks of downloading these unofficial apps, noting: “WhatsApp doesn’t support these third-party apps because we can’t validate their security practices.”
Apps such as WhatsApp Plus and GB WhatsApp can only be downloaded from unofficial sources – you won’t find them in the Google Play Store – thereby exposing users to a greater risk of malware being installed on their phones in the process. Indeed, you have to deactivate certain security settings on your Android device to be able to carry out the download.
How to switch to the official WhatsApp app
You might need to back up your chat history before moving to the official WhatsApp app. The name of the unsupported app you’re using determines whether you need to transfer your chat history. Locate the name of the app by tapping More Options > Settings > Help > App info. Follow the steps below based on the name of the app: WhatsApp Plus or GB WhatsApp.
If you’re using an app other than WhatsApp Plus or GB WhatsApp, we recommend saving your chat history before downloading the official WhatsApp app.
GB WhatsApp
We recommend following the steps below to save and transfer your chat history. Failure to follow these steps could result in lost chat history. Please note that we can’t guarantee this will be a successful chat history transfer because WhatsApp doesn’t support unofficial apps.
- Wait for your temporary ban to end. The timer will show you the length of the ban.
- In GB WhatsApp, tap More options > Chats > Back up chats.
- Go to Phone Settings > tap Storage > Files.
- Find the folder GB WhatsApp and tap and hold to select it.
- In the upper right corner tap More > Rename and rename the folder to “WhatsApp”.
- Navigate to the Play Store and download the official WhatsApp app. If you can’t access the Play Store, download the app here.
- In WhatsApp, verify your phone number.
- On the Backup found screen, tap Restore > Next.
- WhatsApp should load with your existing chats.
WhatsApp Plus
If your chat history was previously saved, it should automatically transfer to the official WhatsApp app.
- Navigate to the Play Store and download the WhatsApp app. If you can’t access the Play Store, download the app here.
- Verify your phone number.
