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WhatsApp was occupying the number 4 position on the list of the most popular free apps on ITunes this time last week. This app is designed to use 3G or Wi-Fi to send messages over smartphones at no cost.
There are a lot of advantages to downloading this app. For example, you can send anything from a message to an image, video, or even a voice note. You can talk to anyone who you have as a contact, and create group chats, making it easier to keep in touch. Along with this, as with most other messaging services, you are constantly logged in and therefore you will always receive messages, even if you switch your phone off. Furthermore, there is an option to automatically add contacts from your phone book, so you can talk to people you know straight away, without having to add them manually. As with BBM, you are able to broadcast personalised messages, which a lot of people are a fan of, or you can set your status as ‘busy’ or ‘away’ etc.
Also, you are able to see when your message has been delivered or read with one or two ticks showing this. You even have the option to call a contact, which can be easier than going off and on the app to do so, although it does cost. However, I think that one of the biggest issues surrounding this app is that you can only add contacts via their mobile number. So, this makes it difficult to post your contact information online for people to contact you, as it would be dangerous to share your mobile number. In addition to this, you can only contact people when you have an internet connection, so this can be frustrating if you are somewhere without a connection. Apart from this, I have no other real negatives involved with using WhatsApp.
I would recommend downloading this app if you want to have a platform that makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family for free. I believe that, apart from only being able to use via internet, WhatsApp is better than text messaging because you can send a range of multimedia for free. Although, it is pretty similar to iMessage, so if you are an iPhone user, you may not want to bother with this download. In comparison to BBM, the other popular messaging app at the minute, I think that this is better for quality, but not as good for safety, as there is no option to use a PIN.