How to download WhatsApp for Android for free

WhatsApp Messenger, as you know, is an instant messaging application created to send text messages for free. After you have installed the application, you’ll notice that in WhatsApp you have available the same address book contained in your smartphone.
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The app will automatically display the contacts who already use it and to which you can send SMS. If you are a new user, the service is on free trial for the first year. whatsapp for android for freeAfter this free trial period, you can purchase the service for just $0.99 USD a year (less than one Euro per year). To use WhatsApp you simply need an Internet connection, and that’s why it’s cheaper then text messages and you don’t have additional costs. And that’s not all. In fact with WhatsApp you can share videos, music. pictures, very easily and in no time. Furthermore you can create group chats with your friends, colleagues and family.

As we were saying the first year is completely free, and now, if you are and Android user, you can have it for free forever. Let’s see how to do it. The first step is to install one of those two app: BlackMart Alpha or Aptoide. BlackMart Alpha in an alternative to Google Play Store for tablets and smartphones with Android operating system. From Blackmart it is possible to download several apps, and you won’t need a Google account.

Aptoid is another marketplace for mobile applications running with Android operating system. Aptoid is not a centralized store, as each user organises its own store. So, after you have installed Blackmart or Aptoid,  you just need to open the app you have choosen. Once it’s opened you have to go to search and write “WhatsApp”.

Be careful to find the original application, as in the internet there are many “fake” versions. Once identified it, you can download, install and open it. That’s all! From now on you have WhatsApp installed on your device, and you can use it for free.

Play Store reintegrates AirDroid after removing it for having used the word “WhatsApp”

airdroidYou probably have not even had the time to realize it, but in the last hours AirDroid lived a particular (we could say unique) experience: it was removed from the Play Store, but after a very short time it was readmitted.

It seems that the problem was created by the use of the term “WhatsApp”, which AirDroid included in the description of one of its services. The feature in question is the one that allows you to reply from PC to messages received through apps like WhatsApp.

Facebook, which, as you know, is the owner of WhatsApp, did not like the episode and so turned to Google, which decided to immediately remove the application from the Play Store. The problem was that the developers of AirDroid had not been warned, and therefore did not have the time to change the description given in their app.

Google has some strict rules which prohibit to mention the name of other applications in the title of one own app. So it is quite strange what happened to AirDroid and not really correct because the word “WhatsApp” was used only in the description part, without even referring to affiliations between the two services. And in fact Google has immediately reintegrated AirDroid on its Play Store, as the claims made by Facebook were unfounded.

But what is AirDroid? AirDroid is a cross-platform application which allows you to access and manage your Android devices (phones or tablets) from Windows, MAC or Web, wirelessly, for free, remotely and securely. AirDroid users can manage their files, SMS, videos and apps like WhatsApp and WeChat easily from their computer.

This “incident” surely makes us reflect on the power achieved by Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of FaceBook, who managed to have such an influence on a giant such as Google. And the numbers seem to bear him out, considering the huge success of Facebook and WhatsApp, which are now used all over the world.

WhatsApp: how to use Voice Calling Feature

voice callThe arrival of WhatsApp Calling was highly anticipated, and the many users of this successful instant messaging app could not wait to be able to use it also for their calls. With WhatsApp calling you can contact whoever you need, your family, your colleagues or your friends using WhatsApp for free, even if you are in a different country.

On the official website of WhatsApp it is available for download the new version that allows you to make voice calls, now allowed only on Android, BlackBerry 10 and iPhone devices. The new feature appears to be well integrated with the application and also free of bugs, so let’s see the procedure to use it.

The first thing you need to know is that WhatsApp Calling uses your phone’s Internet connection, not your mobile plan’s voice minutes, so it is cheaper and you can use it even if you have finished your phone’s credit, or if you know you have to make a very long call. But let’s see how you can place a call using WhatsApp.

It is extremely easy, much more than you were expecting. You simply have to open the chat and select the person you want to call. Now you just need to tap on the phone button which is situated on the top. It is even easier if someone calls you. In fact, when there is an incoming call, you will see it on your WhatsApp screen.

To answer an incoming call you just need to tap and slide the green button. That’s if you want to answer. If otherwise you prefer to decline the call, simply slide the red button. If you wish to decline the call with a quick message, you can tap on the message icon on the call screen.

But it is important that you remember that with WhatsApp Calling you cannot access emergency service numbers or 911, so if you need to do emergency calls you have to find alternative ways.

Data Privacy of users: WhatsApp is the worst

whatsapp privacyThe Electronic Frontier Foundation has just published its annual report called ‘Who Has Your Back?’ which analyses the results of a research regarding the privacy of users of apps and services. Quite surprisingly WhatsApp, which is the most popular instant messaging application, ranked as the worst one at each level of measurement.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international organization dedicated to the protection of digital rights and each year analyses those kind of data, publishing a report. The main purpose of the EFF is to clarify to users what services and what apps usually used by us better explain what governments want, how they cooperate with those governments and how they respond to their questions.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation compiled a list of 24 companies, and among them just two have received only one star (out of five): WhatsApp and AT&T. But what are the reasons for this terrible result? Mainly: the lacking of a safety report to be produced periodically (at least annually); the absence of specific policies on how to use users data and the difficulty to know how data are stored and in which cases the police has access to them.

Although WhatsApp is now part of the same family of Facebook, the social network owned by Mark Zuckerberg has obtained a completely different ranking, getting 4 stars out of 5, meeting most of the criteria required by EFF experts. So, if Whatsapp ranked as one of the worst, who is the winner?

The companies that fully respect the privacy of their users and that therefore deserved all 5 stars are: Apple, Yahoo, Dropbox, Credo Mobile, Adobe, Wikimedia, Sonic and WordPress.

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How to forward a WhatsApp message

forward messagesThanks to the spread of smartphones, one of the free messaging application now available, Whatsapp, is practically replacing old text messages. The app, in fact, not only allows you to send free text messages to other users who have the same software, but also to send to your contacts photos, videos, and to share with them music and even your location through the geolocation.

The success of WhatsApp is incredible and seems unstoppable, and now this app, bought by Mark Zuckerberg (the owner of Facebook), is the most used instant messaging application in the world. So, since all of your friends and colleagues use WhatsApp, you too have started using it to send and receive messages for free with them to share information, arrange appointments, travels and a lot of other things.

This instant messaging application is really very easy to use and requires no special configuration. And now that you are a WhatsApp user, you are curious to know if you can forward messages received through it, as you already do with emails or regular text messages. Obviously you can. So let’s see together how to forward a WhatsApp message.

Clearly, the first thing you have to do is to open WhatsApp on your smartphone and press the Chat button to see the list of your messages (sent and received) through WhatsApp. From here, select the message you want to forward and tap on Modify (you’ll find the button on the top of the screen). Now, put the check mark next to the message (or the messages) you want to send and click Forward.

At this point you have to open your WhatsApp contact list and select with who you want to share the message, and then reply Yes to the following notification. That’s it! What’s interesting is that you can forward WhatsApp messages not just to one contact, but also to groups (simply by choosing a group instead of a single contact).

WhatsApp: new version and new animations

whatsapp nuove immaginiIt is ready a final update of WhatsApp which brings some interesting graphics news. Those news follow the recent introduction of Material Design. As you know, animations are a foundamental part of Material Design, and WhatsApp, officially the most used instant messaging app all over the world, doesn’t want to lose the occasion to beat its competitors and introduces some new, better and colourful elements.

You can find them all in the new version, the 2.12.130, which you can download from the official website and will soon arrive also on Play Store. It offers an animated search bar quite similar to that introduced by Google on its store.These new enhancements regards the bar where you can find  the latest connection time of your contacts. The bar is now animated, exactly like the one of the Play Store (at the end of it, after the animation, you’ll see only the last time your contact was on line).

But it is not yet very clear if the introduction of these animations regards only the last version of WhatsApp, considering they were already noticed in the previous version 2.12.126. And that’s not all.

The new version contains also a little change regarding the caption of the messages from multiple conversations. For example, now you can read “4 messages from 4 chat” instead of “4 messages from 4 conversations”. If you are eager to download this new 2.12.130 version, you can click here to link to this new  APK.

How to logout from WhatsApp

whatsapp logoutFrom the moment you started using WhatsApp, you really started to save a lot on telephone charges: by simply activating on your smartphone this fantastic, popular, instant messaging app you are now able to get in touch with all your friends, and chat with them almost for free and without limits. WhatsApp allows you to immediately share with them messages, video, pictures and much more.

But now that you get used to WhatsApp and it is an ordinary part of your life, maybe you are a little bit tired of being always connected. Chat requests, notifications, sounds … it seems it never stops. So you are wondering if there is anything you can do to change the situation without uninstalling it. And yes, there is an easy way to solve this problem, and you don’t even need to turn off your phone.

In fact, you can just exit, at least temporarily, from WhatsApp (if you prefer not to exit, you can always mute the notification alerts). It is really simple, and, what’s better, you can come back when you prefer. Let’s see how you can do it. First of all, maybe you din’t know, but WhatsApp does not have a logout option. However, there are some methods to close the app, and that’s what we wiil see together today.

If you are an iPhone user, press twice the Home button of your iPhone. Now you will see a black bar on the bottom, press for a couple of seconds the icon of WhatsApp which, at this point, will start ‘to dance’. Tap on this symbol – to close it and be offline.

If you use an Android smartphone or tablet, there is also another trick, which is compatible for Android and iOS devices. The method consistes in changing the current year to a past one (for example you can change from 2015 to 2014) and then restarting your phone.

When you restart you will be offline from WhatsApp, but you will still be able to receive phone calls, text messages or other kind of messages (email and so on). To be back to normal, you just have to set again the current year from the setting options of your device and restart it. Simple, isn’t it?