WhatsApp Phone Capture Limitations

Applicable to Administrators

This topic lists the limitations in WhatsApp Phone Capture.

The following limitations are observed in WhatsApp Phone Capture for Android and iOS:

• The app archives only audio data in a video call.

• When Meta hides certain participants in a community or within group messages or comments (excluding the Community Info UI), WhatsApp Phone Capture archives only their 14-digit login ID, not their phone number.

• When group calls are archived, the participant metadata might not include all participants.

• If  users switch off their mobile devices and use WhatsApp Web or WhatsApp  Desktop for long periods, communication data from the Web and Desktop  application are not archived. To archive data from WhatsApp Web and  WhatsApp Desktop, these applications must always be synchronized with  the mobile application.

• Older versions of devices might experience higher battery usage if battery saver wake-up is disabled.

• If  attachments exceed the maximum file limit of 25 Mb, the app archives  only the name and type of the attachment, along with a notification  about the exceeded file attachment limit. The file itself is not  archived. This behavior is applicable to file attachments and call  recordings.

• Share extension and screen share features are disabled.

• Companion mode is restricted and disabled.

• WhatsApp  Phone Capture does not allow users to create and use Passkeys. Smarsh  advises against allowing your users to activate the native WhatsApp app  with Passkey if you intend to migrate the same number to WhatsApp Phone  Capture.

• When capturing follow and unfollow events in a channel, a specific event for a user is captured:

  • Once per second for Android
    For  example, if User A on Android followed Channel X, unfollow Channel X  and follow it again, all in the same second, WhatsApp Phone Archiver  captures the first follow event and unfollow event. The last follow  event is not captured.

  • Once per minute for iOS.
    For  example, if User A on iOS followed Channel X, unfollow Channel X and  follow it again, all in the same minute, WhatsApp Phone Archiver  captures the first follow event and unfollow event. The last follow  event is not captured.

• If a user has  multiple Google accounts connected and selects the wrong account during  backup, WhatsApp Phone Capture is unable to restore the backup. Users  should avoid connecting multiple Google accounts if they wish to restore  backup from a Google account.

• WhatsApp Phone  Capture is unable to archive calls exceeding three hours because the  device's operating system closes the app after this duration.

• WhatsApp Phone Capture does not support transferring chat history to local device storage using the Transfer chat history to Android phone or Transfer chat history to iPhone settings on both iOS and Android.

• In a community or a group chat with only one member, the following behavior is observed:

  • Android: Messages are not archived.

  • iOS: UNKNOWN is displayed in the TO field of the archive.

• When a user sends a broadcast message and a 1:1 message to a participant in that broadcast, the Signature message with a Daily frequency is sent twice within the conversation thread with that participant—once in the broadcast message thread and once in the 1:1 message thread.

• WhatsApp Phone Capture does not support adding audio disclaimers to audio and video calls.

• WhatsApp Phone Capture does not archive missed group voice chats.

• The app archives only call logs and not the call recording in the following scenarios:

• If a user closes the app immediately after a call or terminates a call by killing the app, only the call logs are archived and not the call recording. In this scenario, the call end time in the archived logs may differ from the actual end time by several minutes.

WhatsApp Native Limitations

The following limitation is observed in WhatsApp Native and hence reflected in WhatsApp Phone Capture:

• In group or conference calls, the call duration may display as zero seconds for some users in both the app and the archive.

  

iOS Specific Limitations

The following limitations are observed only in WhatsApp Phone Capture for iOS:

• Calls established through a link are not archived.

• When a user deletes a message in a Broadcast using the Delete for me option, the delete action is not archived.

• The messages received through the iStore WhatsApp API are archived as empty messages.

• When a link is posted in a Status Update (Story), the Status conversation type is archived multiple times.

• WhatsApp's nicknames are not displayed in the archive.

• When a user deletes an existing message, the Signature is sent.

• When  polls are archived, only the participant's phone number is shown in the  archive body instead of their phone number and nickname.

• When a user creates a new group and members join, redundant events showing users leaving the group are archived.

• Voice chats that are not displayed as call bubbles in a chat are not archived.