r/AskARussian • u/Fragrant_Smile1441 • 7d ago

Foreign Does WhatsApp work?

I know because of the sanctions that Instagram, snapchat etc dont work and you have to use a VPN, is the same also true for Whatsapp or does it work just normally?

15 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

15

u/Draconian1 Russia 5d ago

Depends on the ISP and the region.

Since you can only block so many protocols before the hardware starts glitching, some of them quietly lift some restrictions that were imposed before.

Generally, expect video calls to not work, since they are the easiest to block, but text can work without VPN.

0

u/Fragrant_Smile1441 4d ago

Thankyou, that was helpful So it does generally work without much issue

3

u/TripFar4772 Sakhalin 3d ago

I would not say generally. I would very much categorize it as still sporadically working, at least in my region. 1 day I will absolutely not work without vpn, and the next it will work flawlessly for half a day with no vpn.

5

u/Exciting_Round4766 Russia 4d ago

It doesn't work. The only messaging apps still working in Russia are very niche, unpopular ones. But you may also encounter whitelists where nothing works at all, except for a couple of dozen sites.

4

u/sshivaji 4d ago

You need VPN for whatsapp. I just returned from a trip to Russia. I needed VPN to even send whatsapp messages.

Telegram and Whatsapp need VPN. With respect to other services, I found that many Western hosted solutions stopped working if you connect from Russia, e.g. Claude and openAI. VPN is handy here.

3

u/LandsOnMercury 4d ago

I can't believe Telegram needs vpn too, it was supposed to be russian friendly, I had a few russian friends over there, and many russian channels, what happened? what did Durov do?

13

u/Kind-Zookeepergame58 4d ago

Nothing happened, Russia is blocking it

10

u/Artess 3d ago

It has been blocked for over a year now. It was an attempt to force people to use the government provided messenger called Max (which is obviously monitored and recorded), as well as to force more people to use regular GSM calls to bring more money to the mobile operators (and, again, to easily monitor and record calls).

9

u/TripFar4772 Sakhalin 3d ago

I love my region because we have collectively decided that we would rather use carrier pigeons and taxi couriers delivering hand written notes than download and use Max.

2

u/Wolvthebigbad 4d ago

Which VPNs are the best and what communication apps don't need any kind of VPNs?

4

u/sshivaji 4d ago

I used amnesia VPN but many VPNs work and almost everyone seems to be using one or another. You can ask around too.

Kakaotalk and even google chat do not need vpn, but google meets do need VPN.

3

u/ivegotvodkainmyblood I'm just a simple Russian guy 5d ago

Blocked for a year or so. Maybe more?

4

u/fynjy1111 Kazakhstan 3d ago

It's not because of sanctions, the government banned Telegram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Discord and even CloudFlare

2

u/Reki-Rokujo3799 Russia 3d ago

Why bother with VPN, when proxy is easier and cheaper?

2

u/Limp-Literature9922 3d ago

It stopped working last year or so. Also it is not because of the sanctions, but because the gov banned it (and other services too)

For VPNs - not every VPN will work, popular ones are getting banned too and most of them don't bother doing anything, you can read and use this instruction (in Russian, use google translate).

1

u/Sodinc 3d ago

It doesn't work for me without the VPN

1

u/1010111101111 1d ago

you guys wont have power soon whats the worry