Author Archives: Christine

Great news for those of you who want to use the Web client of WhatsApp with the new Microsoft Edge browser: in fact, finally, they are now compatible … or maybe not. There are contrasting version of the news, so let’s try to recap what happened.

About one year ago WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging application, added the Web client to its Android version. Maybe you remember that at the time there were only three browsers supporting the Web client: Firefox, Chrome and Opera. After that, to the iOS version of WhatsApp was added Safari too. The peculiarity of this new feature was that it finally enabled WhatsAppers to use their WhatsApp accounts through a computer running on Windows, using a real keyboard.

Unluckily Internet Explorer was not supported and neither Windows 10 with the new Microsoft Edge browser. But now it seems that finally WhatsApp developers have found a solution and made the Web client compatible with Microsoft Edge. The way to log into your accounts is simple: you just have to scan the QR page from web.whatsapp.com. So far so good, you might think. Yes, because now we arrive at the confused part of the story.

According to what a Reddit user has published a few days ago, the new Client was working just fine (he published a post titled “WhatsApp Web now works in Microsoft Edge without having to change the user agent to Chrome or Firefox”). The post caused the reaction of some users who are clearly unhappy about this new feature because it seems that it isn’t working on  their devices.

That’s what some of them wrote: “Not it’s still not working with Edge. For some reason it thinks you aren’t on Edge. But if it thinks you are on Edge it will still refuse to work.” or “Not working for me. Idk why.” and “It seems like this was some kind of bug (don’t know the specifics – not a web development expert myself), because now it doesn’t work anymore. It was good while it lasted.” So, what’s really happening? So far there are no statements on this matter coming from WhatsApp’s representatives.

Today we are going to talk about another update that makes WhatsApp more enjoyable than ever. In fact the Android version of this instant messaging app has just considerably increased the number of users of a group chat.

If you are a fan of the app, you should know that so far a WhatsApp group chat could only include up to 100 users, but finally with this latest update the limit has been pushed to 256 users. Isn’t it awsome? Someone could point out that they are still a few compared to Telegram that supports up to 1000 members, but it’s certainly much better than just 50 users, that’s the number that was allowed until november 2014.

This last improvement is not new to iOS users, who received the same update with version 2.12.13. Android users should be able to see this latest update with version 2.12.367 and above, if not you can always download the latest 2.12.437 version of WhatsApp for Android from the app website. In the near future this improvement should be added also to the other platforms that support WhatsApp such as Blackerry and Windows Phone.

So, that’s another smart move that will further improve the popularity of WhatsApp. And if you still have any doubts about the success of WhatsApp (maybe because you prefer other messaging services like Viber or Telegram), let’s see some recent statistics. At the beginning of this month the company made it official that now WhatsApp has 1 billion monthly active users (like Gmail, Google’s free email service, and preceeded only by Facebook).

And, if it’s not enough, do you know how many messages are sent very day through WhatsApp? 42 billion. Not to mention photos: 1.6 billion per day; and videos: 250 million per day. And that’s not all. Along with this latest Android version 2.12.413 of WhatsApp comes also the confirmation that the company intends to enable its users to link the messaging service with their Facebook account.

More than a billion monthly active users, and you are part of this big family. We are obviously talking about WhatsApp. This popular instant messaging application for smartphones, one of the most used all over the world, is now an important part of our lives and we use it every single day of the week for several reasons: to chat with our friends and beloved ones, or to share information with our colleagues.

WhatsApp is really easy to use, versatile, completely free, and, above all, it runs on all mobile platforms. WhatsApp developers work hard to keep the service always updated and well functioning, and new versions of the app are often released. The one we are going to talk about today is the new Beta version 2.12.351 for Nokia S60 devices. You can install this latest beta version on Nokia Bella or on Symbian S60 devices.

Unfortunately this new update doesn’t introduce any new features (therefore, the Voice Calling feature seems still far to come), but fixes some bugs and issues. This new WhatsApp 2.12.351 Beta version for Nokia devices contains a few changes to the SIS (installation) file that has been increased by 1KB. In addition, 7 files related to libraries and WhatsApp executable file have been modified.

As usual, the procedure to install this latest WhatsApp Beta on your Nokia device is quite easy, you just need to follow a few simple steps and have a little bit of patience. The first thing you have to do in order to download beta version 2.12.351 on your device is to uninstall the current WhatsApp from your device.

After that open the browser and go to whatsapp.com/nokia, where you’ll find a “Download Now” button. By simply selecting it you will download the SIS file to your Nokia device. Now, once the download is completed, you have to go back to the location where you’ve previously saved the file and select it. At this point you are installing the latest WhatsApp Beta version 2.12.351 on your smartphone.

Are you a WhatsApper? If you are, you are in good company since now this popular instant messaging app is used by over one billion users all over the world. After a few weeks of rumours the news is now officially confirmed by the Facebook-owned service.

The announcement was given yesterday by WhatsApp and Facebook with a blog post. With this incredible result WhatsApp is now the second-most popular app in the world (guess who holds the first position? Obviously, Facebook), and nothing seems to stop its growth. The irony is that in the US WhatsApp is not so popular, but Jan Koum and Brian Acton (WhatsApp founders) are absolutly not discouraged and keep on improving their app.

So it seems that Mark Zuckerberg (the owner of Facebook) had a really good intuition when two years ago decided to acquire WhatsApp for $19 million. That’s what the company said in the post published to celebrate this achievement:

“As of today, one billion people are using WhatsApp. That’s nearly one in seven people on Earth who use WhatsApp each month to stay in touch with their loved ones, their friends and their family. We are proud of this milestone, and we’re humbled by the extraordinary ways all of you have used WhatsApp …

we’re honored to be a small part of what people are doing to make their lives and the lives of those around them better. And yet, through all the progress we’ve made together over the last seven years, our mission has never changed …

But now, it’s back to work – because we still have another 6 billion people to get on WhatsApp, and a long way left to go.”

Now we are all curious to see how the company will increase its profits, after that a couple of weeks ago they decided to drop the subscription fee. Jan Koum said that the plan is to make money through companies that use the app to communicate with consumers, but for the moment we have no further details.

Finally, after several updates dedicated to the Android version of WhatsApp, the developers of the service have released a new Beta version for Windows Phone devices that promises to be extremely interesting. What changes with this new 2.12.264 beta version? Let’s see it together, it will take just a couple of minutes.

The first noticeable thing is that most of the updates concern the notifications, that, as you well know, represent an important aspect of this instant messaging application. So now, starting from this new beta version, those of you that use WhatsApp from Windows Phone devices will find some relevant enhancements when it comes to the notifications. Are you ready?

Let’s start with the first one: the notifications of messages that arrived on your device while the application was closed will be removed from the Action Center as soon as you open WhatsApp again. And that’s not all. In fact thanks to this latest update, the Action Centre and the toast can expand more than with the previous versions, and now you will be able to read a message long up to 4 lines. The Live tile has been improved too and now it shows not only the missed messages, but also a small preview of them. Isn’t it awsome? Some minor restyling have been done also to the Info page.

What else? For now that’s enough, but surely more improvements are coming soon. If you want to download this new 2.12.264 Beta version of WhatsApp for Windows Phone, remember that you won’t find it on the official Windows Phone Store since it is still in the Beta phase. If you are convinced and you want to install this beta version on your device you need first to enroll to the Beta testing program and, after that, you’ll be able to download and install the 2.12.264 on your Windows Phone device.

Great news for WhatsAppers who use this popular instant messaging app with Nokia devices such Symbian 60 or Nokia Bella. In fact the developers of WhatsApp have just released an updated version of WhatsApp which adds some new interesting features to the app. So, what changes?

This new 2.12.342 version of WhatsApp for Nokia devices enables users to delete messages in all chats at once or individual chats. You can find this brand-new option going to Options > Settings > Chat History > Clear All Conversations. From here you can choose if you want to delete all the messages at the same time or by time: 30 days old, 6 months old.

There are some changes also in the SIS (installation) file which has been increased by 100KB. In addition, 12 files connected to the executable file and libraries have been modified. This new 2.12.342 version of WhatsApp for Nokia devices also brings the usual bug fixes along with the improvement of the stability of the application.

That said, let’s see how to install this latest update of WhatsApp for Nokia devices. You can download this latest 2.12.342 SIS installation file from whatsapp.com/nokia website. The procedure it’s really easy, you just have to remember that before downloading the new SIS file, you need to uninstall the current version of WhatsApp that you are using on your Nokia smartphone.

This recent update isn’t the only significant news about this successful messaging service and the new year promises to be really eventful for this Facebook-owned service. Along with the several updates received by the various versions of the app (Android, Nokia Asha and so on), it is now official that from now on the application is totally free.

And, big news, it seems that finally you will be able to use WhatsApp to share text documents with your contacts! It’s not yet official, but a Reddit user (CarbonAtom) was able to explore the latest beta of the WhatsApp code and found out that in the near future we will be able to share .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .xls files. Isn’t it amazing? And it’s not the only information that CarbonAtom was able to discover: it seems that the Reddit user was also able to identify the icon that WhatsApp will use for this new feature.

If confirmed, this option will be largerly used by the many (over 1 billion monthly active users) followers of WhatsApp and surely will increase the success of the app.

The hectic work of WhatsApp developers never stops. In fact, here we are with the fourth update in a week of the Android version of this popular instant messaging application. This new 2.12.419 Beta version of WhatsApp for Android has been released today with the usual bug fixes and it seems also that the app is getting much more stable.

So, is this the only reason for this last release? It seems so, considering that this new 2.12.419 doesn’t bring any new features. Or at least that’s what appear at a first glance, even if it seems that some changes have been done on the translation to certain languages.

The 2.12.419 APK (installation) file weighs 26.67MB (it has been increased by 177KB) and supports Android 2.1 or above. You will notice the addition of a new file which is called “settings_description.xml” (it could be a new option that will be launched in the future), along with the deletion of 3 thumbnail files.Furthermore, if you decide to install this last 2.12.419 Beta on your Android device, you’ll also see that 197 files have been modified. For the moment, these seems to be the most noticeable things about this new Beta version of WhatsApp for Android.

So now let’s see how to install it on your device. First of all remember that you can’t download new Beta versions from the official Google Play Store, but you can do it from whatsapp.com/android. Once you’ve downloaded the 2.12.419 Beta version of WhatsApp for Android you’ll have to enable the “Unknown Sources” option. This is the option that enables you to install APK files that you have downloaded from a third party source.

To enable the “Unknown Sources” option you simply have to go to Settings > Security (or Settings > Application, depending on the OS version that you have on your device). Once you’ve enabled this option, go back to where you’ve saved the 2.12.419 APK file and tap on it to start the installation of this latest Beta version of WhatsApp on your device.