WhatsApp Download

A new beta of WhatsApp is available for Windows Phone users and it brings several updates. New beta version 2.12.190 promises to be exciting since it comes with the Starred Messages feature and a new interface that allows you to attach pictures and videos. Let’s see in detail how these new functions work.

First of all let’s talk about the popular Starred Messages feature. This option, already available for Android and iOS users of WhatsApp, is finally available for Windows Phone users too. How does it work? When you decide to “star a message” it will appear in the contact card of that specific contact, so you won’t risk to miss any important messages (for example, if they are messages related to your job). Useful, isn’t it?

Now, above we talked about a new interface for attaching pictures and videos. This seems to be another interesting feature and also really easy to use. In fact to take a picture you simply have to tap the button, and for a video just tap and hold. In addition, if you want to add to your chat a video or a picture, you can select them from the list. What more? Yes, because the news are not yet finished.

Beta version 2.12.190 brings another appealing feature which allows you to save your voice messages to a new PTT folder located in Pictures/WhatsApp. The interesting thing of this feature is that users will be able to forward, store or even modify the voice messages received. The files of the voice messages are .aac files and their extension is .wap. Once you have saved your voice messages you can play them back easily with a file explorer.

Unfortunately all the above updates are currently available only for beta testers (being version 2.12.190 a beta), so Windows Phone users should  be patient until the stable version will be released.

Great news for all of you who own an Apple Watch and love WhatsApp. In fact, thanks to the last iOS 9.1. update, you can benefit of the “Quick Reply” feature not only when you are using your iPhone, but from your Apple Watch as well.  With this major improvement (which comes after one year from the launch of this popular wrist smartwatch), both Apple and WhatsApp take a big step ahead to meet the needs of their users. The Facebook-owned app is now one of the most used instant messaging application around the world, and today proves why: its team is flexible and inexhaustible.

But let’s see together how to install this last version of WhatsApp on your device. To be able to install this last version of WhatsApp you need to have or iOS 9.1 on your iPhone, or Watch OS 2.0.1 on your Apple Watch. So, after you have ensured that your device is compatible, you can finally download this last update of WhatsApp just by clicking here:  https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/whatsapp-messenger/id310633997?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

There is no doubt that this last function of WhatsApp is really time-saving as it allows you to reply to your messages straight from the notification using message presets, or, if you prefer, you can even dictate your replies and your Apple Watch will send them to the intended recipient. It’s great, isn’t it? This excellent and useful feature already has a brief but interesting history.

In fact it was first introduced with iOS 8, but, until a few weeks ago, it was possible to use it only with Apple’s app. It was with the arrival of iOS 9 that things have really began to change, since WhatsApp has made available this function for iPhone users with iOS 9.1. In addition, to conclude, it’s also nice to know that together with the Quick Reply feature, iOS 9.1 has brought also other updates such as many new emojis and the Live Photos app.

Perhaps many users haven’t yet downloaded beta version 2.12.338 and here we are to talk about another new version of WhatsApp for Android. In fact  the developers of WhatsApp have released another new beta of our beloved instant messaging application. Today the new beta 2.12.339 is arrived and its APK is ready to be downloaded.

After all the changes introduced during the last few weeks, this time the new beta doesn’t bring any substantial changes but just fixes some bugs and it’s more stable than the latest version. But if it help us to use WhatsApp better, this latest version is equally welcome. It’s certainly remarkable what the developers are doing. Only for the Android version of WhatsApp during the last few weeks we’ve had several betas and important improvements.

For example the feature that enable WhatsApp users to backup their Chat History on Google Drive. Or, just a couple of days ago, the Starred Messages feature, that let you store your favourite messages so that you can view them later on. But let’s go back to talk about the new beta 2.12.339 and let’s see how to install it on your devices.

So: where can you find this new beta? The easiest and safest way to download the WhatsApp 2.12.339 APK file is from whatsapp.com/android, which is the official website of WhatsApp.  To install it on your Android device, first of all you have to enable the “Unknown Sources” option, which you can find on your smartphone going to Settings > Security (or Settings > Applications).

Once you have enabled the “Unknown Sources option, go again where you have saved the APK file and, to start the installation of beta 2.12.339, simply tap on it. Obviously you always have to remember that this is a beta, so some issues can occur. But as usual they will be fixed with the release of the stable version.

Finally after many problems WhatsApp, one of the most popular instant messaging applications, arrives on the mobile platform of Mozilla with its own official client. Until a couple of days ago it was not possible to find an official version of the messaging service on Firefox OS, but instead, on Firefox Marketplace, you could find other apps such as ConnectA2 and LoquilM that have made it possible to use the protocol of WhatsApp.

But this solution came to an end when, at some point, the team of WhatsApp has begun to ban users of not official clients for safety reasons. So from that moment it wasn’t possible anymore to use LoquilM and ConnectA2, that meant no more WhatsApp. But today we have great news: now it is possible to find on the Marketplace the official client of WhatsApp for Firefox OS.

In addition the service guarantees all of  the features that made WhatsApp so successful (900 million active users) all over the world. In fact WhatsApp and Firefox have in the end reached an official agreement. The agreement finally solves with a happy ending all the problems occurred during the last couple of years.

So now all Firefox OS 2.5 (and 2.5+) users can safely download from the Marketplace the app, that, thanks to Openmobile ACL (Application Compatibility Layer) technology, is rather identical to the Android version. But, as they say, not all that glitters is gold. As often happens with latest releases it seems that someone is having some problems in using WhatsApp for Firefox OS.

According to some users feedback, it appears that the app does not work properly on all devices, but it is very likely to be a transitory problem. To use WhatsApp for Firefox OS you will need a Firefox OS 2.5 version. You can easily download it from Firefox MarketPlace: https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/whatsapp/

The most perplexing thing about WhatsApp is that it is not widely used in the country where it was invented. WhatsApp is an American product invented in San Jose, California, by two American engineers , yet it has never really caught on in the United States.

WhatsApp is reportedly the most popular messaging solution in a number of countries, including India, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain. Indian newspapers and websites are full of news stories about WhatsApp, including accounts of how Bollywood movie stars use it. Yet the American media did not acknowledge WhatsApp’s existence until Facebook spent $19 billion to buy the company that produced it last year.

Many Americans were actually perplexed when legendary Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg opened his checkbook in order to get WhatsApp. They did not understand what he was buying or why, because they were completely unfamiliar with a product developed and owned by an American company.

Why Americans Don’t Do WhatsApp

Actually, there are several very good reasons why WhatsApp has little appeal in the United States or Canada. Some of them are apparent, and some of them are not. A few of the factors that deter Americans from trying WhatsApp include:

• Many Americans are highly invested in other social media and messaging technologies, including Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, Skype, and Twitter to name a few. People that are already heavy users of one social media are often simply too lazy to check out something new.

• Cellular phone service in much of the United States is very cheap because there are many competing companies. Americans pay little for data plans, so they are less likely to invest in free alternatives such as WhatsApp. In contrast, the phone market in countries like India and Mexico is controlled by a few large companies that charge much higher rates.

• Many Americans use the Apple iPhone, which comes with a proprietary messaging system. To add WhatsApp to iPhone, you have to unlock it, and you cannot use some popular WhatsApp features on it. For example, you could not send video on WhatsApp through an iPhone until quite recently.

• Americans are less offended by advertising than people in some countries. Part of WhatsApp’s appeal is its lack of advertising. Americans have gotten used to advertising on a wide variety of social media, while people in some other parts of the world have not.

• Americans do not have to pay for each text message like some people do. Individuals in Spain have to pay 17 cents every time they send a text through the phone company’s system. Those charges can quickly add up. Not surprisingly, the free WhatsApp is used by 96% of Spanish texters.

• It is even more expensive to text in some others. In Portugal, it can cost between 80 cents and a dollar just to send a text over some systems. Naturally, free messaging solutions attract a lot of attention in countries like Portugal. Before WhatsApp, only the rich could afford to send text messages in some countries. Now everybody can because it is so cheap.

• WhatsApp is very popular with first-time smartphone users. In several countries, such as India, many people are using smartphones for the first time.

• Most Americans have access to a computer either at home or at work. Most people in nations such as India do not. They use their smartphone as a computer; Americans tend to use computers for a lot of tasks that many other people use smartphones for. Many Americans use computers to access social media and to send pictures and videos to friends for example. A large number of Americans still use email because they’ve used it all their lives.

• People in India need a phone that they can use to send more than texts or voice messages, so they turn to WhatsApp. A lot of Americans do not; many Americans never access the Internet through their phone or even use its camera.

• WhatsApp is also more compatible with some languages such as Portuguese than it is with America’s main language: English. The Portuguese and Spanish speaking peoples use a wide variety of special characters that are simply not found in English. These can be used in WhatsApp but not in some other popular messaging solutions, according to Quora poster Nardyello Co.

• A lot of Americans and Canadians simply do not know what WhatsApp is. Since many Americans rarely travel outside of North America, they may have never even seen WhatsApp in action. They simply do not know that something like WhatsApp exists.

• Smartphone service is still not that good or reliable in much of North America. In the United States, cellphone service is often terrible outside of large urban areas. There might not be service whatsoever or just one company in a region. When you drive through the United States and Canada, it is still common for service to cut out in rural areas. Service can even be spotty in some suburbs. That makes it hard to use a web based solution such as WhatsApp.

• Americans are not yet used to the idea of using their phone as a computer. They’ve been conditioned to think of the phone and the computer as two different devices and the Internet as something accessed through a computer, not a phone. Many Americans still do not even realize that their smartphone can also serve as a computer.

• Since Americans rarely travel outside their own country, they do not need a cross-platform messaging solution such as WhatsApp. One of WhatsApp’s most popular attributes is the ability to send messages between countries for free. Those without friends or relatives in foreign countries have little incentive to use it. Persons that do not travel widely do not need such an app.

Will Americans Ever Start Using WhatsApp?

Not surprisingly, a lot of people will wonder if Americans will ever adopt WhatsApp. The answer is probably not without a massive advertising campaign or a major push from one of the big tech companies such as Facebook or Apple. Since those companies have little incentive to promote a low-cost, advertisement-free solution from which they cannot make money, it will probably never happen.