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A TECHNICAL SEMINAR REPORT

ON

WhatsApp

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement


For the award of the degree of Bachelor of Technology
in
Computer Science & Engineering

WhatsApp Seminar Report

WhatsApp
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WhatsApp Seminar Report

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................6
Introduction...............................................................................................................................7
The Master Mind.......................................................................................................................9
How it Work? ..........................................................................................................................11
Downloading and Installing.....................................................................................................12
Protocol Used...............................................14
XMPP...........................................................................................................................14
Characteristics..................................................................................................14
Architecture......................................................................................................15
XML.................................................................................................................16
Secure Communication....................................................................................16
Instant Messaging..............................................................................................16
MD5..............................................................................................................................17
WhatsApp vs. ChatON vs. LINE..................................18
Features.....................................................................................................................................19
Future Scope..............................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................22
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................23

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WhatsApp Seminar Report

ABSTRACT
WhatsApp Messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging application for
smartphones. Moreover, to basic messaging WhatsApp Messenger users can send each other
images, video as well as audio media messages. The client software is available for
Google Android, BlackBerry OS, Apple iOS, selected Nokia Series 40, Symbian, selectedNokia
Asha platform, Microsoft Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10. WhatsApp Inc. was founded in
2009 by Americans Brian Actonand Jan Koum (also the CEO), both former employees
of Yahoo!, and is based in Mountain View, California. The company employs 55 people.
WhatsApp Android is not compatible with only Android ; it is available for iOS, BlackBerry
OS, Symbian and Windows Phone only. WhatsApp synchronizes with the phones contacts
book, so users do not need to add contacts in a separate book. As the underlying technology the
application uses the open standard XMPP.
On February 19, 2014, Facebook Inc. announced it is acquiring WhatsApp Inc. for US$19
billion. Facebook will pay $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares and $3 billion in
restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp founders and employees that will vest over four
years.

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WhatsApp Seminar Report

INTRODUCTION
WhatsApp Messenger is a proprietary, cross-platform instant messaging application for smart
phones. In addition to text messaging, users can send each other images, video and audio media
messages.
The client software is available for iOS, BlackBerry OS, Android, Symbian, Series
40, and Windows Phone.
Competing with a number of Asia-based messaging services WhatsApp handles two billion
messages per day as of April 2012, growing from one billion in October 2011.
According to the Financial Times, WhatsApp "has done to SMS on mobile phones what
Skype did to international calling on landlines."

Software Specification:

Developer(s) :

Stable release:

WhatsApp Inc.
Android
2.8.1504 (July 30, 2012)
BlackBerry OS
2.8.1914 (August 12, 2012)
iOS
2.8.2 (July 13, 2012)
Symbian
2.8.13 (August 16, 2012)
Windows Phone
2.8.2.0 (September 10, 2012)

Development status :

O.S :

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Active

Android, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Symbian, Series 40, and Windows Phone

WhatsApp Seminar Report

Type :

Instant Messaging

License:

Proprietary

Website :

whatsapp.com

Achievements:

WhatsApp crossed its own milestone for the first time by sending just over 1 billion
messages in a single day.

Just how much is 1 billion messages? That is 41,666,667 messages an hour, 694,444
messages a minute, and 11,574 messages a second.

1 billion messages a day is a significant milestone

WhatsApp is editors choice in google app market.

Silent features of WhatsApp For Android:

Multiplatform and free for the first year (except on iOS).

Automatic detection of Whatsapp users by comparing address book contents

Low on network usage.

Unlimited length of messages.

Personal display status.

Real-time confirmations when messages are sent as well as delivered.

Share photos, videos, music and more with people.

Able to send current or any specific location.

Create and join groups where you can chat as well as share media.

You can apply group icons.

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WhatsApp Seminar Report

THE MASTERMIND
WhatsApp was founded by two guys Jom Koum and Brian Acton who spent combined 20
years doing geeky stuff at Yahoo! Inc. before starting WhatsApp Inc.

Jan Koum (born in Kiev, Ukraine on February 24, 1976) is CEO and co-founder with Brian
Acton of WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application which was acquired by Facebook Inc. in
February

2014

for

US$19

Billion.

Koum

is Jewish and

grew

up

in Fastiv,

outside Kiev in Ukraine. He moved with his mother and grandmother to Mountain View,
California in 1992, where a social support program helped the family to get a small two-bedroom
apartment, at the age of 16. His father had intended to join the family later, but finally remained
in Ukraine. At first Koum's mother worked as a babysitter, while he himself worked as
a cleaner at a grocery. By the age of 18 he became interested in programming. He enrolled at San
Jose State University and simultaneously worked at Ernst & Young as a security tester.
In 1997, Jan Koum was hired by Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer, shortly after he met Brian
Acton while working at Ernst & Young as a security tester. Over the next nine years, they
worked at Yahoo. In September 2007 Koum and Acton left Yahoo and took a year off, traveling
around South America and playing ultimate frisbee. Both applied, and failed, to work
at Facebook. In January 2009, he bought an iPhone and realized that the then-seven-month-old
App Store was about to spawn a whole new industry of apps. He visited his friend Alex Fishman
and the two talked for hours about Koums idea for an app over tea at Fishmans kitchen
counter. Koum almost immediately chose the name WhatsApp because it sounded like whats
up, and a week later on his birthday, Feb. 24, 2009, he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in
California.
Jan Koum was part of a group of hackers called w00w00, where he met the future founders of
Napster Shawn Fanning and Jordan Ritter.

Brian Acton (born 1972) is an American computer programmer and Internet entrepreneur. He
is the co-founder of WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application which was acquired
by Facebook Inc. in February 2014 for US$19 billion. He was formerly employed at Yahoo Inc.

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WhatsApp Seminar Report

Acton grew up in Michigan and graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in
computer science. He earlier studied at the University of Central Florida and the University of
Pennsylvania. In 1992 he became a systems administrator for Rockwell International, then a
product tester at Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems. In 1996 he became the 44th employee hired
by Yahoo Inc.
In 2014, Koum and Acton agreed to sell WhatsApp to Facebook for approximately $19 billion
USD in cash and stock. Forbes estimates that Acton held over 20% stake in the company,
making his net worth around $3.8 billion. According to Acton's personal Twitter feed, he was
turned down for employment by both Twitter and Facebook in 2009.

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WhatsApp Seminar Report

HOW IT WORKS

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to


exchange messages without having to pay for SMS.

WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web
browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.

WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio
messages.

Technical specifics

WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and
Presence Protocol (XMPP).

Developed for Third Generation IC Integrated smartphones

The Greater bandwidth networks such as 3G or WiFi

ID creation : During installation,take userid as Eg. [phone number]@s.whatsapp.net).

Password Creation :
In Android: reversed-version of the phone's IMEI,MD5 hashed.
In iOS: double MAC address, MD5 hashes it.

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DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING


One can simply download whatsapp by visiting http://www.whatsapp.com/download/

To verify whatsapp using your own mobile number


First you need to have Application installed in your mobile and needs to have minimum balance.
Follow the steps:
1. Install the application.
2. Launch the application.
3. Enter your mobile number and tap on OK button.
4. Verification process will be completed in 10-15 secs of 10 minutes total time.
5. Your mobile will get register with your own SIM(mobile) number.

Suppose if the application was uninstalled, you can again install and register with the previous
number.
The process will be same as the above.

To verify whatsapp by entering a invalid mobile number


Whatsapp not only test the mobile IMEI numbers but also test the valid or wrong numbers.
suppose if you have entered a invalid/wrong number.
For to test this,you need to have a mobile with SIM inserted and whatsapp installed and with
minimum balance.
Then the procedure will be as follows:
1. Launch the application.
2. Enter any number other than your mobile number and tap on "OK" button.
3. Verification process continues and after 10 minutes of total time.
4. Your mobile gets "connection failed,reverify" popup.
This will happen because whatsapp will work for one number and one device.
If any one try to register with a invalid/wrong number,a highly secured procedure is
implemented.

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To verify whatapp by interchanging the SIM cards


Here we are going to see how whatsapp works when two registered mobile numbers(SIMS) are
interchanged.
For this you need to have two mobiles registered with their own mobile numbers.
Now to verify the above scenario,follow the procedure:
But you need to connect to a WiFi/mobile data.
1. Switch OFF both the mobiles A & B.
2. Remove both the registered SIM cards from mobile A and B.
3. Insert the SIM card of mobile B in mobile A.
4. Insert the SIM card of mobile A in mobile B.
5. Turn ON mobile A.
6. Turn ON mobile B.
7. Send a message from any other mobile to mobile A removed SIM number.
8. Message will come to mobile A only, even though it is using mobile B SIM.
By this it is observed that whatsapp will work even though the SIM card is changed/removed.
But this scenario will work untill we change the number in "change number" option in settings or
if we uninstall and reinstall the application.

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WhatsApp Seminar Report

PROTOCOL USED
WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence
Protocol (XMPP) Upon installation, it creates a user account using one's phone number as the
username (Jabber ID: [phone number]@s.whatsapp.net). WhatsApp software automatically
compares all the phone numbers from the device's address book with its central database of
WhatsApp users to automatically add contacts to the user's WhatsApp contact list. Previously the
Android and S40 versions used an MD5-hashed, reversed-version of the phone's IMEI as
password,[15] while the iOS version used the phone's Wi-Fi MAC address instead of IMEI. A
2012 update now generates a random password on the server side.

XMPP:
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is a communications
protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML(Extensible Markup Language).[1] The
protocol was originally named Jabber,[2] and was developed by the Jabber open-source
community in 1999 for near real-time, instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact
list maintenance. Designed to beextensible, the protocol has also been used for publishsubscribe systems,

signalling

for VoIP,

video,

file

transfer,

gaming, Internet

of

Things applications such as the smart grid, and social networking services.
Unlike most instant messaging protocols, XMPP is defined in an open standard and uses an open
systems approach of development and application, by which anyone may implement an XMPP
service and interoperate with other organizations' implementations. Because XMPP is an open
protocol, implementations can be developed using any software license; although many server,
client, and library implementations are distributed as free and open-source software,
numerous freeware and commercial software implementations also exist.

Characteristics:

Open: It's free. There are multiple implementations for open source XMPP servers, as
many customers and development libraries.

Free: you can see how it works, and the user has the freedom to implement himself the
freedom to suit their needs, without needing anyone's approval.

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Extensible: using the potential of XML, anyone can extend the XMPP protocol for
custom functionality.

Decentralized: anyone can start their own XMPP server.

Insurance: Safety Supports the transport layer and any XMPP server can be isolated
from the public XMPP. \

Architecture:
Generally, XMPP is implemented and used as a client-server distributed architecture.

Figure: decentralized client-sever architecture


When we send an XMPP message to a contact, the XMPP client connects to our XMPP server,
and it connects directly to our contact XMPP server, without performing multiple jumps.

Figure: XMPP architecture

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XML:
XMPP is essentially a technology for transmitting XML. Once the connection is established,we
can exchange messages asynchronously with the server.
Types of XML tags to transmit diffrent type of messages:
Stream: Container unit is a sequence of messages XMPP.
Message: Used to send messages between users.
Presence: To report the presence of the user. This includes when they
connect,disconnect,change state or name.
Iq: It is used for the transmission of internal commands. A new connection, report bugs
& things that have nothing to do with users.
XEP: are the set of applications that extends the diffrent lables that supports the protocol.

Secure Communication:
The XMPP communications between clients and servers are safely implemented mainly through
two mechanisms: The TLS protocol applied to the transport layer protocol and SASL layer
applied to the Simple Authentication and Security.
The TLS protocol is a protocol for establishing a secure connection between a client and a server
or between two servers. TLS is able to authenticate on both sides of the communication, and
creates an encrypted connection between the two.
If the talks were not encrypted attack would be easy and could make it easily intercepted
conversations.
Such attacks are very simple,with a network analysis tools & protocols such as Wireshark &
specific application called Whatsapp Xtract.
XMPP SASL provides a generalized method for authentication.

Instant Messaging:
The messages are the most important part of any instant messenger system.
XMPP is a message oriented protocol, which can be of six different :

Normal: they would like messages to the email.

Chat: person who posts messages would be used in a conversation between two people.

Group chat: messages sent to a group of people.

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Headline: that would be the marquee messages.


Error: for error messages.
Jabber:x:oob: for direct connections between clients for sending messages.

MD5:
The MD5 message-digest algorithm is a widely used cryptographic hash function producing a
128-bit (16-byte)

hash

value,

typically

expressed

in

text

format

as

32

digit hexadecimal number. MD5 has been utilized in a wide variety of cryptographic
applications, and is also commonly used to verify data integrity.
MD5 was designed by Ron Rivest in 1991 to replace an earlier hash function, MD4. The source
code in RFC 1321 contains a "by attribution" RSA license.

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WhatsApp vs. ChatON vs. LINE


WhatsApp

ChatON

LINE

VoIP

NO

Yes

Yes

Tablet

NO

Yes

Yes

Client Web

NO

Yes

Yes

Free

NO

Yes

Yes

Multiplataform

Yes

Yes

Yes

Consume batt.

Normal

Quite

Much

Users

100 Millions

2 Millions

89 Millions

Int. User

Very good

Good

Regular

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FEATURES OF WHATSAPP
Sending Places:

allowed you to send your location to your chat partner or to your group chat.

It is useful if you want to share your approximate location on a map.

Group Icon:

personalize your group chat by attaching a custom icon to your group

Group chat:

You can exit a group chat that you are in at any time

You can control group chat alerts and notifications separately from individual messages.

Media transfer:

audio , video, pictures , animation etc.

if you have an iPhone 3GS running iPhone OS 3.1 or higher, you can also send a
video,but both parties need to be running version 2.3 in order to send and receive media
messages.

Message delivery receipts:

In 2.3 you probably have noticed by now that you see a red letter attached to every
message you send. Those red letters are actually quite important because they tell you if
your message was delivered properly or not.

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FUTURE SCOPE

What lies ahead is known by none. The application is free today but may not be tomorrow or so the talks
go around.
As far as the facilities provided are concerned, WhatsApp today does not provide the option of Calling
(although its logo has a phone receiver inscribed in the centre!). It may have this in future. With the
technology growing in leaps and bounds, we may also expect a Skype-like free video call via WhatsApp.
What has been a user-friendly, connectivity application till date may take a turn towards sharedinformation holding platform like Drop box, meaning people may not only be able to chat on WhatsApp
but also share and store common data.

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With the advent of Cloud Computing, the world has virtually shrunk down to the size of a room. It may
not come as a surprise hence, to see such a large network-sharing support on WhatsApp someday.
Whether the mole will actually become a mountain someday is a mystery. Till then, we enjoy the present
and await the surprises of future.

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CONCLUSION

Application testing requires a detailed overview of the System requirements and


Functional requirements.

Testing application and making it to sustain in harsh environment makes the application
more flexible and quality wise very rich.

Based on products review upgradation is done this makes application to stay alive and
popular in market.

Various robust testing makes the application capable to satisfy every requirements and
needs of the customer.

WhatsApp on the other hand has been around for quite some time now and is being used
by most and offers functionality like text based messaging and files transfers. But given
enough time Line is a capable product and in the future it hold the potential to overtake
WhatsApp, unless some new innovations is adopted by the world leader in messengers.

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WhatsApp Seminar Report

BIBLOGRAPHY
We visited following websites:

http://www.whatsapp.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp

http://www.xmpp.org

http://www.apple.com/

http://www.whatsapp.com/android/

http://www.wikiswot.com/SWOT/4_/Whatsapp.html

http://nivedithg.blogspot.in/2012/10/wechat-mobile-app-review.html

http://www.wikiwealth.com/five-forces:whatsapp

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