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Stay away from GBWhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus or risk permanent ban

by Felix Omondi
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Remember that story we ran about WhatsApp banning users using the copycat (read illegal) version of its popular instant messaging app? More on that at this link. Well, the Facebook-owned IM app is still coming down hard on these copycats, and is now threatening a permanent ban should you continue using these fork of its app.

That means you should stay away from GBWhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus. Unless you want to permanently not be able to communicate with your family and friends on the popular messaging app.

If you receive an in-app message stating your account is ‘Temporarily banned,’ this means that you’re likely using an unsupported version of WhatsApp instead of the official app. If you don’t switch to the official app after being temporarily banned, your account might be permanently banned from using WhatsApp.” – reads in part a statement from WhatsApp.

As with any copycat, GBWhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus do infringe on the Terms of Service of the authentic WhatsApp app. It also infringes on their copyrights. In layman’s term, these two forks are bad for business, especially now that Facebook is on the verge of starting to monetize WhatsApp.

Facebook has already rolled out a WhatsApp Business, a corporate version of the app tailored to meet the needs of businesses to communicate with customers.

WhatsApp Business app officially launches in select … – Innov8tiv

WhatsApp Business now available for iPhone albeit in Beta | Innov8tiv

How to avoid the impending ban if you’re using GBWhatsApp and Plus

Personally, WhatsApp has become a critical communication channel for me, and I would imagine the same thing goes for most people. Being banned permanently from it would be a big inconvenience.

That said, below are some instruction offered by WhatsApp to people using fake versions of the app to avoid being banned. At the same time, not losing their chat history when they delete the fake apps and reinstall the genuine app.

Users on GBWhatsApp

You will be banned, albeit temporarily. Open the GBWhatsApp app on your phone, go to More options > Chats > Backup chats and perform a backup.

Now close the app, and uninstall it. Now go to phone Settings > Storage > Files. Locate the GBWhatsApp folder and rename it to ‘WhatsApp; to rename, tap and hold on the folder, and on the right corner the rename option will appear.

Now go to Google Play Store and download the official WhatsApp app and follow the prompts to install it.

Once the app is running, the Backup found screen will pop up. Now tap on Restore > Next

That way, you will have served your sentence (by being temporarily banned from WhatsApp) and once the ban-period is over, you can come back into the system. Complete with all your chat history; since GBWhatsApp could not upload your history to Google Drive.

WhatsApp Plus users

Users of the WhatsApp Plus fake app will have things a little bit easier. You chat history will automatically transfer to the official WhatsApp app.

WhatsApp Beta has an improved Picture in Picture video … – Innov8tiv

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