Those of you who use WhatsApp with Windows Phone devices will find a pleasant surprise on the Windows Store. A new beta version of our favourite instant messaging app has just been released, and it brings some improvements. This latest 2.16.128 Beta version of WhatsApp for Windows Phone adds some changes that makes the app more similar to Windows 10 Mobile.
By installing this latest update on your device, you will find larger emoticon. Furthermore, your contacts will be shown on the home page with circles instead of squares. This latest beta update is currently available only to Beta testers, but we are confident that it will soon be released as a public version.
So it’s clear that even in the middle of the summer the developers of WhatsApp keep on working very hard to maintain the supremacy of the app in the world of instant messaging. And if the Facebook-owned service is now a giant, the other companies are trying their very best to win the market. Undoubtedly one of these services is WeChat, that in China is the biggest Internet-based mobile messaging platform. The Chinese company has engaged a competition with WhatsApp in Africa, and we will soon see the results.
Obviously WhatsApp is used more widely, but WeChat offers also other kind of services such as money transfers, prepaid electricity and airtime purchases. WeChat was launched in Africa in 2013, thanks to a partnership among China’s Tencent and South African e-commerce and media group Naspers. That’s what Brett Loubser, WeChat Africa’s head, has told to Reuters: “That’s at the heart of the story for us because we knew that we were late to the market compared to other instant messaging apps and so we realized that focusing on chat services was not the most practical way to get to market,“.
According to a study by World Wide Worx, a Johannesburg consultancy, in 2015 WhatsApp was still the major instant messaging in South Africa with over 10 million users, where WeChat reached just over 5 million. For the moment WhatsApp has no plans to monetize its service in Africa, said Facebook Africa’s head Nunu Ntshingila. In any case it’s going to be a tough competition, let’s see if WhatsApp will remain at the top.