According to a report issued by cyber security firm Kaspersky 2023, around 28% of gbwhatsapp users around the world have been targeted with malware attacks while they downloaded updates from other than official websites, and in 15% of these instances, the leaked chat logs. In order to ensure security, users must obtain the update package from a trusted source (such as developer website or APKMirror), whose file hash value is 100% match (such as SHA-256 verification tool can verify integrity). For APKMirror, the chances of triggering a Google Play Protect warning by hosting an unsigned gbwhatsapp installation package in 2022 were reduced to 4%, but users still had to disable the “installation verification” feature manually, which took approximately an average of 47 seconds.
According to data, only 32% of gbwhatsapp users back up data before upgrading, while local backup (like Android native backup) can reduce data loss by 89%. For example, Samsung Galaxy backs up chat history to a MicroSD using Smart Switch with transfer speed of 120MB/s, or roughly 3 minutes for 10GB worth of data. Although it should be noted that cloud backup (such as Google Drive) is disable-able since gbwhatsapp was in violation of WhatsApp Terms of Service at 67% accuracy (averaged from 2021 Brazilian users’ lawsuits).
A test by the community of tech XDA Developers showed that gbwhatsapp updating through VPN can work around regional lockouts, e.g., when Indian users connect to Singapore-based servers, download speed increases up to 12Mbps (41% higher compared to local providers). However, with a free VPN such as Hotspot Shield, the frequency of AD injection is as much as 9 per hour and IP leakage is threatened with an increase of 23%. The commercial ones, such as NordVPN, have a 256-bit encryption but cost around $89 annually and are up to 1.2 times slower in upgrading (due to load on the routing nodes).
In 2023, Google Play Protect’s gbwhatsapp installer detection rate of third-party app stores was 51%, of which 38% were categorized as “high risk.” The developers recommended that users turn off automatic scanning before the update, but this increased the risk of malware infection by 19 percent. Safety measures include the use of sandbox environments such as Shelter, where isolated running of gbwhatsapp reduces the possibility of abuse at a system level by 74%, but reduces the battery life of a device by approximately 14% (on OnePlus 11’s 5-hour stress test).
As per the developer note in gbwhatsapp, every update has to make sure the version number is incremented and compatible with API v9.45 or above, otherwise, the ratio of failed message delivery can be up to 33%. For example, more than 1.2 million users in September 2022 were unable to receive media files for 72 hours due to a server-side compatibility problem. The fix is to downsize to v17.20 (APK size is 48.7MB), but delete the app data cache manually (about 2.3GB of storage space). Alternatively, users can utilize the “Delayed Update” feature, which reduces the response time to bug fixes from 24 hours to 6 hours, but only for users with a developer membership ($3.99/month).
According to Omdia, when gbwhatsapp users skip version updates (e.g., from v10 to v12), the system crash rate increases to 28%. An incremental update strategy is recommended: For example, updating one minor version at a time (e.g., from v11.1 to v11.2) resulted in a 94% installation success rate and a 56% decrease in rollback time (from 15 minutes to 6.5 minutes). Also, users of Root device can unb Integration ary the App Store with the Magisk module “Detach” reducing the likelihood of forced update triggering to 9%, but risk the possibility of hardware damage (using Pixel 7 repair prices) to 0.7%.