Users generally move to these modded versions for features that offer more control over their experience:

Safe for the average user. Journalists and activists should be aware that the metadata for "View Once" text messages is still stored for 30 days.

If you look closely, v17.00 contains several quality-of-life tweaks:

When looking for information regarding "WhatsApp v17.00," it is important to distinguish between the official WhatsApp application and third-party modifications like .