If you use any messaging apps (or even just SMS at this point) you've probably seen some sketchy links from time to time. Many of these links are phishing scams trying to glean your personal information or redirect you to malicious, compromised sites. And while most of us know better than to click those links, some of them are really convincing.
To combat that, as reported by Mashable, WhatsApp is working on a system to automatically detect those sketchy links and warn users, which should hopefully limit how effective those scams are.
This detection system works on your own device, so your messages stay totally encrypted without WhatsApp peeking in on things. If your app does happen to detect a suspicious link it will display a red notification above the message warning you to hesitate before clicking on anything. In the example WhatsApp provided, the app detected a strange Unicode character in a link that looked like an official WhatsApp promotion for free concert tickets, but would realistically dump the user into a sketchy site that tried to steal their credentials.
The update rolled out to beta testers late last week and should make its way to everyone in the near future.
