Who does not use WhatsApp today? With its 900 million active users, we can safely say that WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging applications in the world, used to exchange messages, pictures, video, or even to make phone calls. So, without even realizing it, we accumulate a lot of space in the memory of our smartphone, creating some problems (often at the wrong time). So, what can we do? Let’s see together how to free up space on our Android and iPhone devices.
For those who use Android
Maybe you don’t know it, but on Android devices such as Samsung, Motorola, Sony and many more, WhatsApp creates a compressed copy of the photos and videos that you send and receive, and store them in a folder that does not appear in the Gallery of your smartphone. To clean your phone from media files sent and received you simply need a generic file manager that works on Android, for example ES File Manager, or MiXPlorer. If you use a Samsung device it’s even easier because it contains a built-in app called “My Files”. Thanks to this app you don’t have to look for any third party file manager.
So, in order to create space on your smartphone, open the file manager and look for the WhatsApp folder. Once you’ve found it, you will find another folder called “Media”. At this point you have two options. The first one is to remove the folder. The second one is to open it and copy (or move) the files that you want to keep to another folder on your smartphone that is not contained in the WhatsApp folder. When you’re done, delete the “Media” folder.
For those who use an iPhone
On iPhone devices data are saved in the chat as well as in the phone. To create more space in the memory of the chat, you need to open WhatsApp, open the conversation with whom you have exchanged more video, photos and audio, and then press the contact’s name. Now select “Delete chat”. Don’t worry, deleting the chat does not imply abandoning the group chat. To delete files from the memory of the phone you need to open WhatsApp and go to “Chat Settings”. Now you have to desable the “Save media received”. Obviously, before you perform any of these tasks, you must remember to make back-ups of photos and videos that you want to keep.
Are you a WhatsApp a addicted? Don’t be ashamed, you are in good company (900 million active monthly users). But even if you are not an addicted user of the service, it’s undeniable that it is an extremely useful way of communicate with your family, colleagues or friends. But what happens if you are not in your country and you want to use it? Do you have to pay any additional (expensive) fees? Certainly not, if you follow those tricks.
Problem: I cannot connect to WhatsApp using Wi-Fi.
Instead, many people think of WhatsApp as a short messaging service (SMS), a built-in text messaging solution. Such SMS solutions have been a popular feature on cellular phones for well over a decade. This misconception is partially true; WhatsApp contains an SMS solution, but it is much, much more.
The best way to explain WhatsApp’s functions is with this short guide to its operations:
What Will I Need to Use WhatsApp?
– The ability to share photographs and other images in messages.
To make matters worse, the social messaging service famously refuses to tap one of the most popular and lucrative streams of cash online, namely advertising. WhatsApp founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum famously hate advertising and even wrote blog posts attacking the practice.
To make even more money, WhatsApp was adding around one million users a day, which adds up to around $1 million a day in revenue.
The men behind WhatsApp, Jan Koum & Brian Acton, courtesy Forbes
WhatsApp was unique and popular because it was the first service that offered free international messaging. It also used a person’s phone number as a login, which made it very easy to use, unlike some other products on the market in those days.
Koum had come full circle from his childhood in a village outside Kiev, Ukraine, that had no electricity.
WhatsApp saved money by having all its development done in Russia, where labor costs for web design and app creation are far lower. In 2014, at the time of its acquisition by Facebook, WhatsApp only employed 50 people. By then the company was extremely profitable because of the advent of Google Android.