If you had suddenly realized that your WhatsApp isn’t working while you are in China, don’t blame your phone for it, as China has officially blocked the usage of WhatsApp within their network, but you shouldn’t be affected if you are using data roaming in the country. According to previous reports, WhatsApp have been facing disruptions in China for the past few months, such as unable to send a photo and video chats, as of now sending text messages via WhatsApp is impossible.
It would seem that the block is due to the fact that China has upgraded the firewall to block the NoiseSocket protocol, which the app uses it to send text, in addition to blocking the HTTPS/TLS protocol that sends photos and videos. China has been always known as the country with the great firewall, as it blocks access to Google services and Facebook in concerns of privacy and censorship, hence smartphones in China tend to have their own set of user interfaces and apps for various purposes.
The blocking of WhatsApp is going to be a huge frustration for many who frequently visits China that relies on the service, this action happens to coincide with the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which the app’s end-to-end encryption led to this decision as the Chinese government could not monitor data transferred in the app. Lastly, we hope you are glad that you can still read our site for this news, time to keep a VPN service handy if you are visiting China soon.