WhatsApp

My favorite mobile app is WhatsApp. It is an interesting, easy to use, up to date features, private/group and business inclined thereby making it ideal.

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What is WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a cross-platform instant messaging application that allows iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia smartphone users to exchange text, image, video and audio messages for free. In other word, WhatsApp, is an American freeware, cross-platform centralized instant messaging and voice-over-IP service. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. It allows users to use their phone's cellular or Wi-Fi connection to facilitate
messaging and voice calling to nearly anyone on the planet.

Detail	Description
Author(s)	The original authors of WhatsApp are Brian Acton, Jan Koum
Developer(s)	Facebook, Inc., Will Cathcart (Head of WhatsApp)
Operating system:	Android, iOS, KaiOS (There are also Mac OS, Windows and web ...
Initial release	January 2009
Size	178 MB (iOS); 33.85 MB (Android)
License	Proprietary software with EULA ("European Region", others)
Programming language	Erlang

Total Users

As at now, WhatsApp is 12 years old. According to the company has revealed on Twitter WhatsApp has more than two billion users who send 100 billion messages each month.

Features

The messaging service has managed to attract billions of users by offering tons of features and a simple user interface. The following is list of its features:

Video/voice call

One of the best features of WhatsApp is the call feature. The messaging app lets users make instant video or voice call to anyone in the world. The app also supports group video calling feature, which is amazing. A user can add a total of eight users at a time in a group call. For this, all you need to do is tap on the call button, then tap on the names of people you want to participate in the call.

Picture-in-Picture mode

Picture-in-Picture (PiP) mode is also a great feature, which lets you play shared videos in the messaging app even after switching chats or chatting with someone. The PiP mode supports videos from platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Streamable. This way you don’t need to close the WhatsApp app to watch a video on YouTube.

New storage management tool

WhatsApp have a redesigned storage management tool and is now offering an improved version of it. The storage management section lets the user check all the forwarded photos, videos, files that user have received on the messaging app. Besides the tool also gives users the option to delete them. There is also a dedicated section, which displays files that are larger than 5MB. So, if your storage is full, you can visit this section to free some space. The tool is hidden in the Settings section > Storage and data > Manage storage.

Blue ticks, Last seen

Blue ticks and Last seen are the popular features of WhatsApp. Users love to know when their messages were delivered and read by the contact. One can also check what time you were online the last time. Thid festure ofcours can be disable by visiting the settings section. Just go to Settings > Account > Privacy > disable Read receipts or Last seen.

WhatsApp voice messages, 30 audio files

The messaging platform allows you to send voice messages, which is a very useful feature. There are times when you don’t want to type a big message and feel like sending a voice message. You can also share as many as 30 audio files at once. The platform even supports audio and image preview if album art is available and this won’t change your selection process. Press and hold the speaker botton and speak.

Fingerprint lock

Fingerprint lock is a privacy feature of WhatsApp, which adds an additional layer of security. Once you enable it, only you will be able to access your chats. Users can also enable or disable message context preview in the notifications. WhatsApp offers three options to automatically lock the messaging app. The first is “Immediately,” the second is “After 1 minute,” and the third is “After 30 minutes.” The fingerprint lock feature of WhatsApp doesn’t block calls, and only hides messages.

WhatsApp Dark mode

Dark mode was one of the most demanded features by users. The dark theme helps offer relief to the eyes when you are chatting at night or in a dark room. The dark theme is available in the Settings section. To enable it, you need to go to ‘Chats’ > Theme > Dark. If your device is running on Android 10, then choose system default. The Dark mode feature is visible for both Android and iOS users.

Frequently forwarded label

The frequently forwarded label helps in identifying how many times a message has been forwarded before. When you forward a message on WhatsApp, you can only share it with up to five contacts at one time, after which a frequently forwarded label will be added. You then will be able to forward a message to only one chat at a time. The company says this helps slow down the spread of rumours, viral messages, and fake news.
Source: The IndianExpress

Secret Chatting

To start a secret conversation:

• Tap your profile photo and scroll down to Privacy.
• Click Secret Conversations. Make sure the feature is turned on.
• Tap the New Message button and select the Secret link in the top-right corner.
• Choose a friend from your contacts and start writing a message.

Looking at the features embedded in WhatsApp makes me fall in love with the App and I'm recommending it to many others who have not discovered this wonderful mobile App.