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Can WhatsApp Phone Calls Really Save You Money?

Posted on January 22, 2016 by David

Is it cheaper to use WhatsApp for phone calls or to make your calls the old fashioned way? The best answer to this question is it depends upon how you use WhatsApp.

Yes, WhatsApp voice calls are theoretically free, but there is a catch that some people forget about. WhatsApp can use up a lot of data, which you have to pay for unless you connect directly to the web. If you have to use your data plan to access the web, you will pay for it.

When AndroidPit put WhatsApp Calling to the test, its editors discovered that the average WhatsApp call uses around 800 kilobytes (KB) of data a minute. That means you can burn through your data plan pretty fast. To make matters worse, it can get very expensive rather quickly, especially in the United States, which has the most expensive data plans in the world.

This applies to both calls you make and people who call you. Incoming and outgoing calls take up the same amount of data, so the cost is roughly the same.

Data Plan Cost vs. Phone Call Cost

The average U.S. data plan costs around $85 and gives a user 500 megabytes (MB) of data, according to Android Central. Since a megabyte contains 1,000 kilobytes of data, such a plan would give you 625 minutes of data time.

At that rate, you could use all up all of your data in about six ten-minute phone calls. Judging by the amount of time a lot of people, particularly teenagers and some women, spend on the phone, quite a few people would use up $85 worth of data in just one day.

That, of course, is a very bad deal considering the fact that you can get a plan with unlimited talk from U.S. carriers such as Republic Wireless for as low as $40 a month, according to U.S. News & World Report. This also means that WhatsApp is a very bad deal for domestic calling in the United States unless you can connect directly to the Internet.

AndroidPIT WhatsApp voice calls call log outgoing

Outside the U.S., WhatsApp might save you money because there are data plans that cost as low as $10 a month in countries such as India, Indonesia, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, according to Android Central. It should be noted that there are some other nations, including Angola and Morocco, where data costs much the same as in the United States.

Therefore it might be a good idea for Americans that travel overseas to buy data or even a phone at their final destination. It can be a lot cheaper in some countries; 500 MG of data costs as little as $4.70 in Austria and $8.80 in the UK.

Since most cell phone plans now provide large amounts of free or fairly cheap calling, WhatsApp is not necessarily that great of a deal for regular calls. There are, however, a couple of ways that you can call for free on WhatsApp.

How to Get Free WhatsApp Calls

There are two hacks that can enable you to call for free on WhatsApp. Unfortunately, not everybody thinks of these tricks until they get a big data bill.

The first and most popular means of calling free on WhatsApp is to find a free Wi-Fi hotspot. This trick works because WhatsApp itself is free or very cheap; normally all you need to pay is 99¢ for the app itself. It is the data that costs the money; if you use somebody else’s data, you do not pay.

That is why many people go out looking for hotspots to make WhatsApp calls. Places where you can find hotspots include many coffee shops, including Starbucks locations in the United States, some fast restaurants, including the ever popular McDonalds, and in parts of the United States, public libraries.

A great many franchised restaurants now offer free Wi-Fi to lure in customers, although you might be expected to buy a drink or a snack to use the Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi might also be available at your workplace, although you should probably ask permission to use it there.

Beyond Wi-Fi, you can also make WhatsApp voice message calls on your computer using WhatsApp Web. WhatsApp Web is simply a modified version of the application designed to be used on computers. The Telegraph reported that it is possible to make voice calls directly over WhatsApp Web. Calls on it are free because they are made directly over the Internet rather than through a data plan.

To use WhatsApp Web, all you need to do is install WhatsApp Web on a computer and hook up a headset. You should be able to make calls to most WhatsApp users over WhatsApp Web.

How to Use WhatsApp Calling

It is possible to save money through WhatsApp Calling on your data plan if you use it carefully and sparingly. If you just make the occasional call, it probably will not cost that much, but if you make a lot of calls, it can quickly add up.

A good way to see if you can afford to make WhatsApp calls is to count the number of calls you make a day and calculate how long they last. If you make several long calls a day, WhatsApp Calling will not help you. If you make just one or two short calls a day, you might be able to afford WhatsApp.

If you want to use WhatsApp Calling, you can save money if you exercise a little self-discipline. For example, limit calls, and if possible, try to get people you might have long conversations with to call you using your regular cell phone service or to call back when Wi-Fi or WhatsApp Web is available.

Simply explain the cost of data time to those people. Most people will want to try to help you save money by changing their calling habits. For those that do not want to, you can always refuse phone calls by touching the red phone icon.

Another cheaper alternative to WhatsApp voice is simply to send people text messages. Obviously, not everybody wants to text, but it can be a cheaper solution.

The secret to saving money with WhatsApp is to remember that data time is not free even if WhatsApp itself is. If you can keep that in mind, you should be able to use WhatsApp calling to stay in contact with friends and family and to save money.

WhatsApp Beta for Windows 10

Posted on January 20, 2016 by David

One of the big complaints about WhatsApp in recent months has been the subpar performance of the version for Widows 10. Fortunately, WhatsApp is trying to correct with a new beta program for Windows smartphone users.

The good news is that the latest version of the beta test involves many of the features available to Android and iPhone users on WhatsApp that were not available to Windows users in the past. WhatsApp is trying to make its Windows version in line with the others.

The beta version allows Windows phone users to see the new features and improvements before the public. It also lets users test out some of those features so WhatsApp’s technicians can see how they work before making them available to the public.

What’s New on WhatsApp for Windows 10

There have been significant improvements to WhatsApp for Windows, including better support for Windows 10 customers.

The biggest improvement is to get rid of the loading screen, which means the app will load a lot faster. That also greatly improves performance and addresses, one of the major complaints that users had about WhatsApp on Windows. Some other improvements include an improved user interface, and video calling could be rolled out in coming months.

Some of the other features that are being tested in WhatsApp beta version 2.12.128 for Windows Mobile include:

New sound for messages, which could include better audio quality.

The ability to disable sound in the notifications, which prevents the notifications from interrupting you while you’re on a call.

The ability to quickly change your status. That means you will be able to change your status to At Work or Urgent Calls Only.

Select messages will now appear in the app bar.

Select messages will now appear in conversation view.

The ability to select the quality of your voice calls. Windows Central reported that it could help you conserve data and save money. Switching to lower quality calls can sometimes reduce data use.

Chat and call options could be consolidated to save space and make use easier.

There will be a low data usage feature to help people with limited data plans. That means you will be able to perform basic functions like making calls without using up large amounts of data.

Better message sharing.

More emojis.

Unfortunately, not all these features are available in the regular WhatsApp for Windows 10. WhatsApp only sends them out to people that sign up for the beta test.

How to Sign Up for the WhatsApp for Windows Beta Test

If you want to see what is new for WhatsApp for Windows Phone, you can sign up for the beta testing program. Here is how to apply to become a beta tester for WhatsApp.

1. You will need to send an application to [email protected] using your Windows Phone and a Microsoft or Hotmail email account.

2. The application should consist of a simple message to introduces yourself and lists your job. An example of such an application is presented below.

“Hello,
My name is Clark Kent, and I work as a newspaper reporter at the Daily Planet. I would like to join the WhatsApp beta test for Windows Phone.
Thank you”

3. Make sure that you conclude the email with the words “Sent from My Windows Phone.”

4. Reply quickly to the automated response that WhatsApp sends you. If you do not, the email will never be read.

The decision whether you should participate is entirely up to WhatsApp’s staff. It might take some time for them to get back to you. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee they will choose an applicant.

The staff will contact you with the information necessary if you are selected to become a beta tester. It generally takes two or three days for the staff to get back to you. If you are selected, they will send a download link for the WhatsApp beta to your email. You may also have to scan a QR code to get the beta test to work.

You should download the beta and start using it as soon as you receive it. You should also start providing feedback because the whole idea of a beta test is to determine what real people in the real world think of the new features. The more feedback you submit, the more likely you will be asked to participate in the next beta test.

Signing up for a beta test will let you see what is new in WhatsApp and enable you to see new features before anybody else. If the new features pass the beta, they will be added to the official version of WhatsApp that is rolled out in the Windows Phone Store.

Why You Should Sign Up for a WhatsApp Beta Test

The main reason that you should sign up for a WhatsApp Test is to improve your experience with the application. WhatsApp for Windows has lagged behind the version of the application available to Apple and Android phone users. WhatsApp wants to improve that, but it needs help.

Being a beta tester could help you get an enhanced version of WhatsApp and ensure that you get the latest features. You can even get access to some of the features before everybody else.

Beta testing is vital to the success of a cross-platform messaging solution like WhatsApp because the platforms are constantly evolving and changing. WhatsApp needs to evolve and change with them too.

The developers at WhatsApp want to greatly improve the application and the experience for users. The only way to do that effectively is with a lot of beta testing. Part of the reason why WhatsApp has been so successful has been with all the successful Beta Tests.

Beta Testing is critical for Windows mobile users on WhatsApp because more time and effort have been devoted to the Android and iOS versions. Successful beta tests will enable the developers to upgrade WhatsApp for Windows to match the versions available to other users.

If you love WhatsApp and you want to make it better for all users, you should definitely consider becoming a beta tester. Beta testing is both fun and highly rewarding.

How Do You Make a WhatsApp Phone Call?

Posted on January 19, 2016 by David

One of the reasons why WhatsApp has become so popular is that it allows users to make phone calls for free or at a very low cost. Even international telephone calls can be placed over WhatsApp without using your cellular phone plan’s voice minutes.

Placing a WhatsApp phone call is very easy. All you have to do is start chatting with the person by sending a text. Once he or she responds, simply tap on the phone button in the right-hand corner of WhatsApp. If the person accepts the call, you can talk to them as if you were making a phone call.

If you are calling somebody for the first time, it is often a good idea to tell them you are planning to call through WhatsApp. Placing a call is fairly easy, but there are some restrictions to WhatsApp Calling that you should be aware of.

Limits and Restrictions to WhatsApp Calling

Here are some of the limits to WhatsApp Calling that not everybody is aware of:

WhatsApp calls are not always free, because they can eat up the data in your plan. This is still usually cheaper than international calls. Note: You can place free calls over WhatsApp via a direct Wi-Fi connection or by accessing the Internet through WhatsApp Web.

WhatsApp Calling does not work on all phones or operating systems. It is currently available for Android, iPhone, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10. If you use an iPhone, you will need one with iOS 7 or later. You may also need to unlock the phone.

You cannot make calls to emergency service numbers such as 911 in the United States and Canada and 112 or 999 in the United Kingdom. These have to be called directly.

You should probably have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on your phone. Some older versions of the application do not have the calling option. You can find the latest version at WhatsApp.com in the App Store, the Windows Store and Google Play.

You will only be able to call those that are online or using WhatsApp at that time.

You will only be able to call other WhatsApp users. WhatsApp calling does not enable you to call those using other messaging solutions such as Viber, WeChat, Line and Facebook Messenger. Nor can people using those services call WhatsApp users.

How to Receive a WhatsApp Phone Call

Receiving a WhatsApp call is actually easier than making one. When you get a call, you see the WhatsApp call screen shown below.

To receive the call, simply tap and slide the green phone symbol shown in the lower left-hand corner. To decline the call, simply tap and slide the red phone symbol. If you want, you can also send a quick message saying why you cannot take a phone call at this time.

Watch Out for the WhatsApp Calling Scam

The huge popularity of WhatsApp Calling has attracted the attention of fraudsters. There are now a number calling scams involving the application out there. Here is how one of the most common of these entrapments works.

The user gets a message inviting him or her to try WhatsApp Calling. This is always a scam because WhatsApp does not send out such messages. Instead, spammers are trying to get you to send out advertising or malware to your friends and family. A picture of the scam message is shown below:

AndroidPIT WhatsApp voice calling scam iPhone

The scam usually contains this wording:

“Invite Your 10 Active WhatsApp Friends to Activate WhatsApp Calling.”

This has nothing to do with WhatsApp because the calling feature is automatically activated in later versions of the app. All you have to do is to accept calls or touch the phone icon to activate it if you have a later version of WhatsApp installed on your phone.

You should be very careful with strange texts and calls because the scams are getting more sophisticated all the time. As you can see, the fake call actually contains a list of phone calls that look as if they are coming from friends and family.

Where Can You Make a WhatsApp Phone Call?

The best and most popular aspect of WhatsApp Calling is that you can use it to call any WhatsApp user that is receiving a phone signal. That means you can call almost anybody that has mobile phone service, a smartphone and a WhatsApp Account.

You might also trouble connecting with people in countries like China and the United States, where WhatsApp is not widely used. To call people in the People’s Republic of China directly, you may have to utilize another solution called WeChat . WeChat is also free and fairly easy to download and use, although it should be noted that WhatsApp is the most popular messaging solution in Hong Kong.

One big advantage to WhatsApp is that you can use it to reach people in many developing nations, including South Africa, and to reach contacts in Latin America. Since 78% of Internet users in South Africa and around 70% of those in Argentina use WhatsApp, it is safe to assume you will reach a contact through it.

Another advantage is that WhatsApp is widely used in some European countries, including Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. It is also used by around a third of the people in the United Kingdom.

Yet another reason why WhatsApp is so widely used is that you can send all kinds of data, including videos and photographs, along with your phone call. That makes it ideal for staying in touch with friends and family.

If you do a lot of travel or if you make a lot of calls to people in other countries, WhatsApp is an ideal solution. It is free, versatile and easy to use. Since WhatsApp was designed as a cross-platform application, it functions on a wide variety of devices and operating systems. That means a person with an iPhone can call an Android user with it and vice versa.

Those that make a lot of calls, especially international calls, should check out WhatsApp Calling. It is one of the best and perhaps most powerful features of this highly versatile solution.

What’s Next for WhatsApp?

Posted on January 13, 2016 by David

The next frontier for WhatsApp is commercialization and monetization. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton are reportedly looking for ways to make money from the messaging solution without selling advertising.

The most intriguing of the new plans for WhatsApp would be a service that lets consumers “chat” directly with brands, Zuckerberg announced at a developer conference in March. That apparently means Facebook is planning to set up a new service to provide instantaneous communication between customers and businesses.

WhatsApp, which provides instant cross channel communication, could be the example for such a service. Customers would have one place where they could contact a business.

The major use for this would be for customer service. For example, a stranded driver could use WhatsApp to instantly call a tow truck, or a customer could inquire on the delivery date for an Amazon.com order.

It is not clear how exactly Facebook would make money off of such chats. The most likely means would be to charge businesses a fee for the service. Another would be to take a small percentage of each transaction conducted over WhatsApp.

Buying Over WhatsApp

Obviously, one of the goals of such a service would be to allow customers to order products and services and pay for them through WhatsApp. That would obviously involve adding a digital wallet similar to Apple Pay or PayPal to WhatsApp. Chinese users of the popular messenger solution called We Chat can already pay for a wide variety of goods and services.

There are numerous videos of Chinese paying for goods from vending machines with their phones online. The payments are transmitted through WeChat.

An example of how such a service could be used would be to transmit a grocery list to a supermarket over WhatsApp. Supermarket employees would pull and bag the order and have it ready for the customer to pick up. The customers could then use WhatsApp to pay for the order when she reached the store.

The American supermarket operator Kroger has already developed such an app and is testing it at some of its stores. One of the major flaws with such a solution is payment; customers still have to go into the store to pay for the order. A digital wallet would allow customers to pay for the groceries before arriving at the store.

That way they could simply pick up the groceries from an employee or even a locker. An interesting solution would be to have a drive up so the customer would not even have to get out of the car to pick up the groceries.

A One-Stop Ecommerce Solution

A strong possibility for WhatsApp will be to transform the service into a one-stop ecommerce solution. This would be an easy-to-use app that would allow customers and businesses to perform a wide variety of functions, including ordering, payment, and customer service.

Therefore we should expect a WhatsApp for business at some point. This might replace phone numbers or transform telephone numbers into one point, where a business can receive all of its communications.

Another potential development could be customized communications channels for business that operate on a cross-platform basis. This might allow a person in India to do business directly with a firm in America or somebody in the United States to place an order directly with a factory in China.

In the future, customers might be able to buy a wide variety of products, including airline tickets, insurance products, financial services, and possibly groceries, directly through a WhatsApp marketplace. A logical extension of this would be to integrate WhatsApp with popular online marketplaces such as Amazon.com or Alibaba.

Even More Emoji

Another development we will see in the near future is the increased personalization of WhatsApp. In September 2015 Tech Times reported that there is a button on the Android version of WhatsApp that gives users access to a wide variety of fascinating emoji.

Some of the new emoji include the middle finger, a popular insult in the United States, and the Vulcan salute from Star Trek. These features are hidden, possibly in an attempt to get users to search through WhatsApp in order to explore all the new features.

WhatsApp Wants to Be Your Phone Company

Many of the new features are also designed to entice more people to the WhatsApp platform. This includes a low data usage mode for those that only want to use the app to make voice calls. The idea behind the feature is to let people make lots of calls without using up their data plans.

A logical inference from these reports is that WhatsApp wants to be your phone company. People will turn to it to make telephone calls rather than to call directly because calling through WhatsApp would be far cheaper.

Therefore at some point WhatsApp might start issuing its own phone numbers or some other form of identification. That would make it easier to track users and to monetize WhatsApp. It could also be another product that WhatsApp could sell directly to the public through Google Pay or the App Store.

What to Expect from WhatsApp

The most likely developments from WhatsApp in the near future will be a payment solution and more personalization. My guess is that any major business applications or phone numbers could be years away.

Technically, a payment solution could be easily implemented right now, but it would face a wide variety of legal hurdles. These include banking laws, restrictions against money laundering, and tax authorities. Ecommerce would have to face customs restrictions, and there would have to be some means of blocking people from sending or paying for illegal products over WhatsApp.

Therefore expect limited testing of new WhatsApp features in various places around the world. One way the company might do this would be to secretly add such features to the app in order to see how many people find and use the features. Smart users should watch WhatsApp carefully.

We should also expect more efforts to add ecommerce to WhatsApp because Facebook does need to start paying for its expansion at some point. It will also need to find some way to pay back phone companies that provide the networks by which WhatsApp is accessed.

Expect to see the monetization of WhatsApp within the next few years, possibly with the appearance of a payment feature on the solution. After that, look for a wide variety of goods and services to be sold directly to the public through WhatsApp.

WhatsApp vs. Google

Posted on January 9, 2016 by David

Something very surprising happened on November 16, 2015: Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and Facebook announced an intriguing alliance. On that day Google’s search engine started crawling through Facebook profiles.

Among other things, that means some data collected from Facebook sources will appear as results from Google searches conducted on smartphones, The Wall Street Journal reported . This announcement is a huge one because Alphabet’s Android is the world’s most popular mobile operating system, with one billion active users , according to Endgadget.

It means that Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, will now have access to all those Android devices and Android users. Many more users could be driven to both Facebook and WhatsApp even as many more Facebook and WhatsApp users could be driven to Google.

The Numbers Explain the New Facebook–Google Alliance

Another benefit from the deal is that Alphabet now has access to vast amounts of data generated from WhatsApp’s and Facebook’s customers. The two applications have a combined user base of 1.6 billion . On September 3, 2015, Facebook announced that WhatsApp had 900 million users; add that to the 700 million people that use Facebook Messenger, and one gets a number of 1.6 billion.

This, of course, forms the potential basis for what could be the largest platform in the world: one billion Android users, 1.6 billion WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger users, and 1.55 billion Facebook users. Obviously there is a lot of overlap here, but the implications are obvious.

Facebook has created one of the largest platforms in the world—a platform so large that even Google cannot pass it up.

Why Google and Facebook Are Burying the Hatchet

There are actually several good reasons why Facebook and Alphabet are burying the hatchet at this time, the most important of which is the nature of WhatsApp’s customer base.

zuckerberg-conference

WhatsApp is most popular in the developing world, particularly in Africa. Numbers provided by Statista indicate that around 78% of the Internet users in South Africa use WhatsApp. WhatsApp is also popular in Europe, particularly in Germany, where 57% of Internet users access it.

Alphabet wants to work with Facebook because it has access to a huge new customer base and vast amounts of data that Google might not be able to access. A major reason for this is that Google’s own social media solution, Google Hangouts, is a failure compared to WhatsApp.

Alphabet does not reveal the numbers for Google Hangouts, a clear indication of its failure. It did, however, try to purchase WhatsApp for $10 billion last year but got outbid by Facebook, which snapped up the service for $19 to $21 billion, First Post reported . Obviously Google would not have tried to buy WhatsApp if its own solution was succeeding.

Now Google has revealed the true extent of its social media failure by making peace with Facebook. This is surprising given the tensions and enmity between the two companies. Mark Zuckerberg was badmouthing Alphabet in interviews in the past few weeks.

Can Google Integrate with WhatsApp?

One has to wonder if this search agreement will mark the beginning of an integration between Google and WhatsApp. Such an arrangement would be highly beneficial to both companies, but it could be problematic.

Any effort to combine Google and Facebook would undoubtedly attract the attention of antitrust regulators. Google is already facing serious antitrust actions in the European Union.

It would also raise questions about surveillance and corporate power, which would increase hostility to the companies. This could create serious problems in the United States, where attacks on corporate power have become a major feature of the presidential race, particularly in the Democratic presidential primary.

Beyond that, there are some features in Google Hangouts, including video conferencing, that could be integrated with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger fairly quickly. This would raise other concerns given Google’s focus on advertising and WhatsApp’s hostility to the practice.

Google Hangouts is a superior tool for video conferencing, which could quickly become a major business use of instant messaging and a potential revenue source. Alphabet also has active payment solutions in the form of Android Pay and Google Wallet—a key feature that both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp lack.

Google and WhatsApp for Ecommerce

Another area of Google expertise that Facebook might want to tap is ecommerce. Alphabet has some impressive ecommerce features, including Google Shopping , Google Insurance, and Google Express, which facilitates same-day delivery services. WhatsApp could become a logical venue through which customers could access such services quickly.

Facebook is building an enormous platform with a massive customer base through WhatsApp and Messenger. It obviously needs products and services to sell to those customers, and Alphabet could provide a lot of those goods or services.

Working with Facebook could also help Google regain its edge in the war with Amazon.com for the all-important shopping search market. Forester Research discovered that 30% of product searches by American consumers started on Amazon, while only 9% started on Google Shopping, Marketing Land reported .

If that was not enough, Forester’s analysts believe that Amazon has successfully taken a large share of the shopping searches from Google. Alphabet obviously needs to find new means of driving more customers to Google Shopping. One way to do that is to set up channels that would drive customers from WhatsApp to Google Shopping.

A particularly important part of this will be introducing ecommerce services to developing economies such as those in Africa. The preferred means of accessing bank accounts and making payments in many African countries is digital payments made over smartphones, most of which use Android and WhatsApp.

If Alphabet wants to tap the growing markets in Africa, it needs to go to the platform that Africans use to access the Internet, namely WhatsApp. Some of Google’s products, particularly Android Pay and Google Wallet, could be well suited for Africa. Google could also use its expertise in developing online marketplaces for products such as insurance and financial services to create WhatsApp marketplaces for such products tailored to the African market.

So instead of enemies or rivals, Google and WhatsApp could become the most powerful force in the world of ecommerce and communications. One has to wonder what sort of revenue that could generate.

WhatsApp for NEWS

Posted on January 5, 2016 by David

WhatsApp could become one of the most important news sources of the 21^st century because it is the place many people go for relevant information. In fact, WhatsApp is already becoming the 21^st century equivalent of a newspaper, something people check and watch regularly.

NEWS

“The research found that communication services namely mobile IM (instant messaging), social networks are the first thing consumers check on their smartphones in the morning,” the researchers who conducted Deloitte’s Mobile Consumer Survey 2015 in India reported .

According to Deloitte, 78% of people checked their phones within 15 minutes of waking up, and 52% checked them five minutes before going to sleep. That indicates instant messaging services are now a major source of information for people, and since WhatsApp is the world’s most popular IM solution, with 900 million users, it could be the world’s most popular news source.

Is WhatsApp the World’s Newspaper?

An interesting development is that WhatsApp is becoming the “world’s newspaper.” The WhatsApp newsfeed is the front page, the groups are the various sections such as sports and business, and the cartoons and humor sections would be the comics. Feeds on politics could be the editorials.

This writer in the African nation of Zimbabwe admits that he uses WhatsApp’s newspaper feed as his major source of news. He notes that WhatsApp is the first app he opens in the morning.

One reason why WhatsApp is so popular in countries like Zimbabwe is that it can reach locations such as remote rural areas that newspapers cannot. It might be available in places where there is no television reception, and it is more affordable; all you need to access it is a wireless signal, a phone, and a data plan—things even the poorest person can often afford.

WhatsApp News Could Be Politically Disruptive

Another reason why news feeds from services like WhatsApp are growing in popularity in developing nations is that governments have a hard time controlling them. In dictatorships like Zimbabwe, traditional media such as television and newspapers are little more than propaganda outlets for the ruler.

Those that want real news turn to solutions like WhatsApp. Governments can have a very hard time controlling such media because there are no printing presses to smash, no transmitters to shut down, and no journalists to arrest or murder. Nor can thugs tell who has such an app on her phone and who does not.

This could make WhatsApp politically disruptive as well as economically and technologically disruptive. It could undermine oppressive governments by giving people the true story about a political upheaval, a corruption scandal, or a military defeat.

Everybody His or Her Own Journalist

The most disruptive feature of news via instant messaging is that it gives everybody the ability to become his or her own journalist. Every time a person sends an article, a video, or a picture of a news event to friends or members of a WhatsApp group, he or she is acting as a journalist.

That person is deciding what content to send, how to send it, and where to send it. In other words, he or she is now a news editor. That does make old media obsolete; it just makes it less relevant because people can now pick and choose the news that they want to see. For example, a person interested in football no longer has to read just the commentators from his or her local newspaper.

This does not make the traditional media obsolete; it simply changes the way people use it. Instead of getting all their news from one or two sources as they formerly did, people are now free to pick and choose from a wide variety of news sources. It also means that many more news sources are available; for example, somebody who lives in Denver or New Delhi can now have the latest news from The New York Times sent to his smartphone as often as he wants.

British newspapers such as The Independent are already creating WhatsApp newsfeed for specific topics such as politics and elections. This allows them to reach tens of millions of potential new readers at little or no cost and expand their customer base around the world.

That, of course, expands the reach of big news outlets like The Times at the expense of local organizations. It also turns the hierarchy in the media upside down because the consumers can simply ignore the editors and consume only the news that they want.

Another potentially more disruptive development is that people can start sending out their news. For example, a person that sees an event happening, such as a crime or an accident, becomes a journalist by sending out video and photographs of the event over WhatsApp. All a person needs to become a journalist is a smartphone with a camera and a wireless connection, something a large percentage of the world’s population has.

News for the Whole World

A major side effect of the spread of WhatsApp is that a major news story such as a disaster, a terrorist attack, or the outbreak of war could spread to a large percentage of the world’s population almost instantly. Therefore a major development such as the assassination of a public figure could affect hundreds of millions of people at once.

A negative development here is that it could now be possible for a brilliant hoaxer to fool hundreds of millions of people at once with a false news story. All it would take is a story compelling enough to go viral. When it was exposed, such a hoax could destroy hundreds of millions of people’s trust in news and perhaps in WhatsApp itself.

The First Global News Media

The reach of WhatsApp as a means of disseminating the news is absolutely staggering. This simple app could reach more people than all the newspapers in the world, and it can do it quickly and instantly.

It looks as if WhatsApp could become the world’s most popular and influential source of news in a very short time. When that happens, it will completely change news itself by giving much of the world’s population an instant connection to news. Another staggering development here is that WhatsApp could form the first truly global news source. For the first time in history, people all over the world—in Sydney, Mumbai, New York, London, and Frankfurt—could be getting their news from the same place.

That means WhatsApp is far more than just instant messaging. It could be the first truly global news media, which could have interesting repercussions for everybody on the planet.

WhatsApp for Entertainment

Posted on January 2, 2016 by David

If you think that WhatsApp is merely a messaging solution, you are badly mistaken. WhatsApp is also a fast-growing and cutting-edge entertainment medium that could one day be as influential as television or newspapers.

WhatsApp has the potential to become a major force in entertainment for two reasons: First it can connect large numbers of people seamlessly and cheaply, and second it can be used to transmit a wide variety of entertainment. Currently, the app can be used to send video, audio, and written entertainment.

A good model of how WhatsApp could transform entertainment is WhatsApp Groups . These are networks of people that connect through WhatsApp, and many of them share entertaining material, including jokes. A visit to WhatsApp Groups reveals such groups as Best English Jokes, Funny Videos, Indian Films, Latest Arabic Jokes, Latest Movies, and News.

WhatsApp for Viral Entertainment

WhatsApp has the potential to become a powerful force in entertainment because material can spread virally over it. When something spreads virally, it spreads by word of mouth, which, as all experienced marketers know, is the most powerful form of advertising known to humanity.

Viral entertainment is so powerful because people tell each other about it. A person that thinks a particular joke is funny sends it to her friends who send it to their friends. Classic examples of viral entertainment include the hilarious cat videos that have become such a presence on YouTube.

WhatsApp Groups have the potential to become major entertainment hubs because they can connect hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. A person in India that thinks a video is funny can send it to friends in the United States or the United Kingdom.

This means entertainment can spread quickly without the need for massive advertising or promotion campaigns. People can create their own entertainment and disseminate it without the use of traditional media such as newspapers or television. They can also bypass the large corporations that often own or control those media.

Using such groups means a self-produced movie or television show could reach a large audience on a very small budget. A standup comic could reach hundreds of thousands of people rather than just a small audience in a comedy club.

Is WhatsApp the Future of Video?

There are those, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who think that video disseminated through social media such as WhatsApp will soon grow into a huge business. Zuckerberg, whose company owns WhatsApp, wants to develop a system that would share revenue between video producers and his company.

“We’ll give a revenue share on a portion of the views to content owners,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in a conference call. The idea here is to let people that produce entertainment earn a profit by selling it through WhatsApp and Facebook.

This could be revolutionary and disruptive because it would enable creators to bypass traditional media outlets such as movie studios or television networks and sell programming directly to the public, CNBC reported . Think of the way companies like Netflix and Amazon have already become a major force in American entertainment.

WhatsApp could play a major role because it already reaches around 900 billion people around the world. It is a simple app that many people are already familiar with. If Facebook could figure out a way to sell streaming video through it, it could create the largest entertainment source of the 21^st century.

How WhatsApp Could Entertain the World

An obvious way to expand WhatsApp’s reach would be to find a way to integrate it with a wide variety of devices; for example, a means of downloading WhatsApp videos onto your TV set through a solution similar to WhatsApp web.

This could be fairly easily done because WhatsApp is a cross-platform solution. That means it operates on a wide variety of devices and mediums. Since it is the largest and most popular such platform solution in the world, WhatsApp would be the natural candidate for creating a worldwide entertainment medium.

The most likely media to spread through it would be video. One place where WhatsApp would be popular is in developing countries like Tanzania, where many people have no access to traditional television or the Internet. Smartphones are their primary means of getting news and entertainment.

If Facebook could develop an entertainment platform just for WhatsApp, it could develop the first worldwide entertainment network. Just imagine the power of a video that could be seen by hundreds of millions of people all over the world at once.

How to Find WhatsApp Entertainment

Strangely enough, one of the best ways to see the future of entertainment on WhatsApp is through a simple Google search for the words “WhatsApp” and “entertainment.” There is now a huge amount of entertainment content being produced for WhatsApp right now, much of it coming from India, where such material seems to be a growing industry.

WhatsApp Entertainment has become so popular in some places, including the United Kingdom, that some British newspapers are now covering WhatsApp material. Unfortunately, it does not seem to have a name yet, although I am sure that will change.

Other ways to find WhatsApp entertainment are to conduct searches for specific products such as “WhatsApp Jokes” and WhatsApp videos. The words funny WhatsApp videos will often produce hundreds of results, many of which are often more hilarious than what is on television.

A great way to get a lot of good WhatsApp entertainment is to join specific WhatsApp Groups that are devoted to it. For example, if you love cat videos, you could join a WhatsApp cat video group or organize one.

In the future, we’ll be likely to see a wider variety of WhatsApp entertainment, including games. One possibility is that there might be video games that are specifically created for WhatsApp. Another might be a continuing television series or a serial designed specifically for WhatsApp.

So it is entirely possible that the next big thing in entertainment, whether it is a must-see TV series or a song everyone wants to listen to, will come from WhatsApp. There might come a time when many people wonder how they lived without WhatsApp entertainment.