What’s up with WhatsApp

Home/News/What’s up with WhatsApp

What’s up with WhatsApp

WhatsApp like many other applications has taken advantage of the current COVID-19 climate and has chosen to release some of its latest application capabilities while usage is at an all time high. The latest features, which will be released in the upcoming weeks include improvements to its video calling capabilities, something that has become an increasing necessity given the rise in popularity and dominance of competing video calling platforms such as Zoom and House Party to name a few. Other feature updates include animated stickers (which you may have already seen) as well as the implementation of QR codes.

WhatsApp Messenger simply known by most as WhatsApp, owned by Zuckerberg’s Facebook, is used by approximately 2 billion people worldwide. Incredibly, the App has grown by almost 500 million users in just over two years. This makes it one of the most well-utilised cross-platform messaging ‘freeware’ or services around, in comparison to the native Facebook platform which has 2.5 billion users. A continuous bone of contention between lawmakers and the company pertains to the messaging service’s encryption policies. However, the company used its 2 billion user milestone announcement to reiterate that it has no plans to ‘disable its messaging encryption’. “For all of human history, people have been able to communicate privately with each other, and we don’t think that should go away in a modern society” says WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart. That being said, WhatsApp will provide the relevant metadata in circumstances that require it – such as for criminal investigations.

WhatsApp’ s latest releases are largely focused on improving the App’s overall ease of use. The company’s implementation of the animated stickers may be in response to rivals that have had great success with the feature. The company notes that “stickers are one of the fastest growing ways people communicate on WhatsApp, with billions sent every day. We are rolling out new animated sticker packs that are even more fun and expressive.” The enablement of QR code recognition will allow you to add someone to your contacts by scanning their QR Code rather than having to enter all their details (certainly a feature to look forward to!).  The improvements to the video calling functionality includes an increase in the maximum number of participants – eight people can now participate in a single video call, the inclusion of a new ‘video call’ icon allows for the “1-tap” start of a video call. Another update is one that Apple users are fairly well acquainted with already – which is dark mode for WhatsApp mobile and desktop. This allows users to swap between light and dark mode – depending on the light that is better suited to the time of day. Before now, this was largely impossible on non-mobile applications.

Given WhatsApp’ s increasing usage as a primary messaging service, these will likely be the first of many updates to the application in the next few months – some will definitely be more noticeable from a functionality perspective, and some and more frivolous and fun – either way it’s necessary if the company wants to stay ahead of the pack.

2020-07-13T11:07:57+02:00

Contact Info

Vaal University of Technology, Private Bag X021, Vanderbijlpark, 1900, South Africa

Phone: +27(0)16 950 9531

Fax: +27(0)16 950 9999

Web: VUT Research

Recent Posts

Go to Top