Ahmed Shaami
Founded by two friends Jan Koum and Brian Acton, WhatsApp was incorporated and founded in 2009. The company was acquired by Facebook and now WhatsApp now has 1.5 billion global users. It has about 1 billion active users and has around 450 million daily active users, around 100 million voice calls are made each day. WhatsApp is huge, it facilitates 55 billion messages per day and supports 60 different languages. Also, about 4.5 billion photos are shared in the app every day.
Following are the new features and changes you need to know about your favourite messaging app.
Dark Mode:
It seems like the company is finally working on rolling out the dark mode. There was speculation about the feature being scrapped from the latest developer versions but now the reports are coming that the feature may be available for both iOS and Android users very soon.
Curtain down for Windows phone users:
WhatsApp has decided to stop offering support, upgrade versions for Windows users and soon the app will stop working on Windows phone including Windows 10. The app will also stop working for these phones.
Nokia 206 Single SIM, Nokia 206 Dual SIM, Nokia 208,Nokia 515, Nokia 301 Single SIM Chat Edition, Nokia 301 Dual SIM Chat Edition, Nokia Asha 201, Nokia Asha 205 Chat Edition, Nokia Asha 230 Single SIM, Nokia Asha 230 Dual SIM,Nokia Symbian S60, Windows Phone 8.0, BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10.
The company also plans to stop supporting devices running Android 2.3.7 and older (Gingerbread), iPhone 3GS or any iOS 6 device from February 1, 2020.
You won’t be able to save profile picture:
This sounds like old school though. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is going to remove the ability to save profile picture of other users within the app. It means, if you like a profile picture of your contact, WhatsApp will not let you save that picture on your mobile phone because of privacy concern. The funny part is, you can take a screenshot and save the picture.
WhatsApp Status To Appear On Facebook:
On January 2019, Mark Zuckerberg announced that he is going to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger. WhatsApp will soon have a “Add to Facebook Story” option. It means, your WhatsApp status will be posted as your Facebook story too. However, this feature will only work if you have the Facebook app installed.
WhatsApp ‘Advanced Search’ Feature To Be Rolled Out For iPhone Users:
Initially rolling out for iPhone users and later for Android users, the ‘Advanced Search’ will let users search for photos, links, audio, GIF images, and even videos.
WhatsApp confirms that ads will start appearing in the App:
This was the reason of dispute and disagreement between WhatsApp co-founders and Mark Zuckerberg. Both co-founders wanted it to be free for the users but the Facebook owner had different ideas. Both co-founders felt curtailed and resigned from the parent company last year.
For years, a question confused every WhatsApp user that how does WhatsApp make money if it is free?. Well, the answer could be available soon.
Coming Soon to @WhatsApp…
– WhatsApp Status (Stories) to get Ads in 2020
– WhatsApp for Businesses to get richer messaging format options
– WhatsApp product catalog to be integrated with existing Facebook Business Manager catalog
h/t + 📸 @Olivier_Ptv
at #FMS19 pic.twitter.com/Z5LsbADNbP— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) May 21, 2019
WhatsApp Introduces Vacation Mode that allows you to ignore people:
Tired of people sending you messages you are not interested in? Just like Facebook introduced ‘Take a break’ from friendship a few years back, WhatsApp is working on introducing a vacation mode that would not disturb you with unwanted messages. It simply means you can ignore people.
No one will be able to add you in WhatsApp groups without your approval:
The App now lets you stop people from adding you to the unwanted groups. Now no one can add you in any group if they’re not added in your contact list.
