Whatsapp – The messaging phenomena

Whatsapp was recognized by many giant media websites like Forbes, TechCrunch, Mashable, and from recently it was pronounced as the best messaging app. On June 12, Whatsapp handled over 27 billion messages and on August 6, WhatsApp reported that it has over 300 million active users and over 325 million photos shared everyday. So, lets see why Whatsapp is such a huge messaging phenomena.

Created back in 2009, today Whatsapp represents one of the best cross-platform instant messaging app. Not only that users can send text messages, they can also send audio files, videos, images and from recently it supports voice messages. However, the first 2 or 3 years were harsh for the creators of this app. The likes of LINE, Kakao Talk and the similar apps, were great competition to Whatsapp.
However, the simplicity and the reliability that Whatsapp has, enabled this app to become giant in instant messaging. The design and the intuitive UI are the main advantages this app has over the competition.
The best thing about Whatsapp is that it is cross platform, so you can have it on virtually any device, from Nokia (Windows phone) to Samsung Galaxy S4 (Android). It works even on Symbian and Blackberry phones.
One of the interesting facts about Whatsapp is that it doesn’t show ads and it never will. The owners and creators of this app, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, are strongly against any kind of advertising because of their experience in Yahoo. They worked for 20 years in Yahoo and they wrote detailed blog post about why they are so much against ads.
The sign up process after you install Whatsapp is simple. The first time you download it, you need to enter your phone number. After that you will receive a code number for verification. Then it will automatically find any of your contacts that are using Whatsapp and you can start sending them messages.
No one knows where are the limits to Whatsapp, but I think that in very near future this app will start doing VoIP calls and it will become amazing competitor to Viber.