The dangers of using Whatsapp for work purposes

WhatsApp, the instant messaging app used by circa 1.9 billion people (according to Statista, July 2017), is in my opinion, the next best chat invention since MSN.

With 58% of global users logging on more than once a day, the uses of the chat app are beginning to be recognised in the workplace. With WhatsApp often favoured over cumbersome and unreliable email phone applications, it also provides a more casual method to exchange information with colleagues away from the office, or to quickly inform someone that you’ll be five minutes late.

Furthermore, with its end-to-end encryption only the messenger and the individual recipient or group can see what has been sent – away from bosses’ surveillance.

The Financial Times reports that one study of emergency surgical teams using WhatsApp found that it enabled junior trainees to access more experienced clinicians, who provided support and supervision. Separate research, published in the Journal of Information Technology Education, also sanguine, found that WhatsApp enhanced relationships between students and their teachers.