How to Receive a Notification in WhatsApp if You Changed the Encryption Code of a Contact

WhatsApp has long added end-to-end encryption in its messages to ensure a higher level of security and privacy for users. For those who do not know what this means, it is basically a security method so that only the sender and receiver of a message have access to its content. In this way, each chat has a security code that confirms this type of encryption in your messages. If you want to receive a notification when there is any change in these security or encryption codes , this is what we should do.

Before entering into the subject it is important to know how this end-to-end encryption works, what does that mean to confirm code on a contact’s information screen, how can I confirm if a chat is encrypted and how can we receive a notification when there is any change in the security codes.

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How WhatsApp end-to-end encryption works

Without going into greater detail, it must be said that what WhatsApp end-to-end encryption does is make sure that only we and the person to whom we send a message will be the ones who can read the content of it. That is, no one who can intercept that message, not even WhatsApp itself, can access it.

Each message sent has its own encryption code , which is also unique, and is generated completely automatically without having to activate anything. End-to-end encryption is active by default in WhatsApp and there is no way to disable it.

Confirm if a chat is encrypted end to end

Now, if we want to confirm that a chat is encrypted, what we must do is open the chat, we touch on the contact’s name to access the information screen and once there, we touch on the Encryption option.

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There we will be shown the QR code and the 60 digits with which we can check the encryption with that contact. If our contact is close to us, one can scan the other’s QR code or compare the 60 security digits to verify that they correspond. In the case that we perform a QR code scan, if it matches, a green tick will appear indicating that everything is correct and therefore, the chat with that contact is encrypted with total security.

Receive a notification when you change a security code

As we have just indicated, each chat has a unique security code that is used to confirm that our messages or calls with that contact are encrypted. That code is in the information screen of each contact and is nothing other than a visible version of the unique keys shared between them.

However, we should not worry that they can be seen by anyone, since the QR code or the 60 digits are not the encryption key itself, that is always kept secret for everyone.

If we want to receive a notification every time there is a change in WhatsApp security codes, this is what we must do:

  1. We open the messaging app on our mobile.
  2. We touch on the menu button > Settings.
  3. We go to Account> Security.
  4. Slide the Show security notifications switch to the ON position.

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From that moment, any change in the security code of any of our contacts will cause us to receive a notification on our phone informing us of such change. This is merely informative, since calls and messages with that person will continue to be encrypted end to end.