The world population is more than 783 crore, out of which 300 to 350 crore people use messaging apps. There are countless messaging apps in the world. New messaging apps are still emerging in the Play Store. The most popular app among them all is – WhatsApp. 200 crore people of the world are active users of WhatsApp. WhatsApp and Facebook are 2 common apps that have become indispensable in all smartphones. Both WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger together hold 90% of the messaging apps market. All other messaging apps account for 10%. China’s WeChat competes with WhatsApp in countries including China. So Viber competes with WhatsApp in European and African countries, but no other platform has the number of active users that WhatsApp has.
The main reason behind such popularity of WhatsApp is – updates. WhatsApp constantly changes the platform according to user demand, user preference. WhatsApp is no longer just a chatting app. Apart from video calls, voice calls, payments can also be made. In addition to sharing countless videos, photos, group calls, the option to message only the admin has come to WhatsApp. That streak is still going on. There have been/are coming so many updates in WhatsApp that the chat experience of the users will change completely in the near future.
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WhatsApp, which has a presence in 180 countries, has added important new features in its latest update. Users can generate their own video call link and share it with other users or in groups. There is an option to join in that link. If you click on it, you can directly join the video call of the person. Until now, group calls could be made or individual users could be connected. Due to this facility it will be easy to have virtual meetings, group calls in WhatsApp. Also, the limit of connecting users in video calls has also increased. Now 32 people can talk in one call instead of 7.
A feature group is about to be left. Till now, if any user left the group, all the group members could see the notification, now such notification will be visible only to the group admin. For some time, users have been demanding a secret exit from the group. WhatsApp has finally done it. Another update has been given to make group admin easier. In the event that a user posted an objectionable post in the group and the admin did not agree with it, the group member who posted the post had to be asked to delete it for everyone, but now the admin can do it himself. If the admin finds a post objectionable or does not fit the purpose of the group, he can himself remove the post from the platform by deleting for everyone.
We regularly see the WhatsApp statuses of everyone in the contact list. We are also answering it. The process of replying to WhatsApp status was a bit difficult, now it has been made very easy. While viewing the status, earlier it was possible to react with 2 clicks, now it is possible to react in just one click. Only when we see the status will we get the option of reaction above. The new update of WhatsApp will also provide the facility to hide status. If you posted a story a few hours ago and then took it offline, it will now be possible.
Initially 256 people could join the WhatsApp group. After that the number was increased to 512. Now this figure has reached to 1024. Increasing the limit of group members will make it easier for many people. In particular, companies have to create more than one WhatsApp group, instead of this, a single group will work. Similarly, former students of colleges could not join the same group. Now that will also be possible with increasing group limit. Apart from that, more than one group formed for the same purpose will be merged. As many charitable organizations form groups of blood donors. But as the number was limited, not all could be included in one group. With the new feature of WhatsApp, the number of members of the group will increase. This feature has been launched in a limited version. In the coming days, group admins around the world will get the facility to increase the number of members.
WhatsApp has revolutionized photo sharing. If you share a photo in WhatsApp, its pixel quality decreases. Photos had to be shared in document format. High quality photo sharing feature is provided in the new update. Hipixel photo can be shared by going to WhatsApp settings and selecting the best quality from the photo upload quality in the storage and data option.
Avatars are key among the upcoming WhatsApp features. This tool is provided keeping youngsters in mind. User can create special sticker from his image. It can be set in profile picture as well as used in chatting. This feature, which is currently launched for beta users, will soon be available in WhatsApp for all users. For a long time, users have been demanding the editing feature in WhatsApp posts. Finally this facility will be available in WhatsApp. The user can edit the sent message as many times as he wants.
The method of editing post in Facebook will be the same in WhatsApp. Both the sender and receiver can also see what the user has edited by going to the edit history. Many of these features have already been updated. While many features have been given access to trial users, some changes are coming soon. WhatsApp engineers are working on it. Well, one of the key success factors is change. This aspect stands out behind the unique popularity of WhatsApp. By constantly changing, WhatsApp has become a favorite platform of users, while it has fallen heavily on competitors.
– Harit Munshi