Here we answer 10 most frequently answered questions about the service.
#1. What is WhatsApp
Let’s start with the basics. WhatsApp is a Facebook-owned, multi-platform mobile phone messaging service that uses your phone’s internet connection to chat with other WhatsApp users. The keywords here are; “messaging service” and “phone’s internet”. Without an active data plan or if your phone is offline, you won’t be able to send or receive WhatsApp messages. The other thing is that until now, WhatsApp has been a messaging service enabling you only text and maybe send audio and video messages. No calls. However, the company has started rolling out a real-time voice calling feature starting with India. This will put Whatsapp in direction competition with other calling apps such as Skype and Viber.
#2. How does Whatsapp work
One word — Data. WhatsApp uses your phone’s internet connection to send and receive messages to and from other Whatsapp users. Both the sender and receiver must have the App installed and that’s regardless of their location in the world. Without those MBs on your phone and without the recipient having Whatsapp, please don’t expect miracles.
#3. How does Whatsapp make money
Whatsapp is free for the first one year after which it charges $0.99. With over 700 million users each paying about $1, that’s a cool $700 million for a company that employees only 55 people. However, according to our experience, Whatsapp never charges that $1 after expiry at least for me. It’s been auto renews my trial period for another year since 2011! The other way that Whatsapp makes money is by selling itself. In October 2014, Facebook finalised a $22 billion acquisition of the service. That’s real money right there.
#4. How to download Whatsapp
Whatsapp is supported on Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia S40, Nokia S60, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10. Normally you would go the respective Appstores to download the app. For instance Blackberry users can use App world, iOS visit the App store and Android users the Play store. However, you can also download the app directly from Whatsapp website.
#5. How does Whatsapp last seen work
Now we know that this has raised some eyebrows about Whatsapp. Some people incorrectly think that big brother is watching them, but that’s not the case. You need to know the meaning of two status indicators “online” and “last seen”;
online means that contact has WhatsApp open and is connected to the internet. However, it does not necessarily mean they have read your chat. last seen refers to the last time the contact used WhatsApp.
Like the bygone Instance Messaging services that had “offline”, “online”, “busy” indicators, Whatsapp also has its own way of letting you know the “presence” of the other party so you can communicate better. However, if you still have your own reservations, you can tweak all this in the privacy settings.
#6. When Whatsapp expires, what next?
According to Whatsapp, the service is meant to be free for the first one year after which you remit $0.99/year. But as I have already stated, it almost never expires. It remains perceptually free. Whatsapp is perhaps weary of losing users to competitor services that don’t charge a cent.
#7. Where are Whatsapp images stored on Android
We know most of you send and receive lots of Photos and videos on Whatsapp. The problem is that Whatsapp stores that media locally on your phone. Should you lose it, say goodbye to your cute photos as well. It’s important to know where Whatsapp stores your images so that you can back them up on another service like Dropbox, Google drive or any of these free online storage services. If you have an Android phone, your images are stored in /data/data/com.whatsapp/
#8. How to hide last seen on Whatsapp
Simply go to settings > Account > Privacy > Last seen > Nobody.
#9. How get Whatsapp for PC
Typing on the phone can suck. That’s why you might consider using Whatsapp on PC. Previously you had to use a workaround like Bluestacks to use Whatsapp on PC. However, last month Whatsapp officially added support for Whatsapp on PC. It’s sleek and simple.
#10. What are those check marks next to my messages?
Whatsapp has 3 important check marks and here’s what they mean;
#1. message successfully sent. #2. message successfully delivered to the recipient’s phone. #3. the recipient has read your message.
To know more about these checkmarks, please check out our brief guide to understanding Whatsapp status checkmarks.
