Tech Thursdays: Why Kenyans Should Stop Using Whatsapp GB

With 3 billion users worldwide, Whatsapp is arguably the most popular messenger app. Most Kenyans have come to love and use WhatsApp almost on a daily basis. However, many find its features a bit limited so they've turned to other alternatives. One such alternative is an app called WhatsApp GB and it offers people so much more than the official WhatsApp.
Extra Features include:

It lets you hide your blue tick, double tick,online status and group read receipts
WhatsApp GB supports multiple languages.
You can lock chats with a password.
You can customize your WhatsApp theme to your liking.
Unlimited WhatsApp stories.
Access to deleted Whatsapp stories
Ability to pin texts in Whatsapp groups
WhatsApp also GB allows you to share videos up to 16GB.

But…..there's a catch. Whatsapp GB usually asks for "permission" to access ALL of your phone data. That's a serious security breach. Why would you risk identity theft and other unpleasant consequences for the convenience of sharing 16GB videos?
Whatsapp GB doesn't provide end to end encryption, has excruciatingly slow bi-weekly updates, is very bulky and indistinguishable from bloatware and won't backup on Google drive. Why won't it backup on Google drive? Because the app was banned from Google Playstore. That tells you something.
Whatsapp is currently reigning in on GB users. If you received an in-app message stating your account is "Temporarily banned", you might need to revert to normal whatsapp. Here's how:
You might need to backup your chat history before moving to the official WhatsApp app. The name of the unsupported app you're using determines whether you need to transfer your chat history. Locate the name of the app by tapping More Options > Settings > Help > App info.
Whatsapp recommends the following steps to save and transfer your chat history. Failure to follow these steps could result in lost chat history. Please note that they can't guarantee this will be a successful chat history transfer because WhatsApp doesn't support unofficial apps.

Wait for your temporary ban to end. The timer will show you the length of the ban.
In GB WhatsApp, tap More options > Chats > Back up chats.
Go to Phone Settings > tap Storage > Files.
Find the folder GB WhatsApp and tap and hold to select it.
In the upper right corner tap More > Rename and rename the folder to "WhatsApp".
Navigate to the Play Store and download the official WhatsApp app. If you can't access the Play Store, download the app here.
In WhatsApp, verify your phone number. Learn how to verify in this article.
On the Backup found screen, tap Restore > Next.
WhatsApp should load with your existing chats.