Get to know the WhatsApp application for beginners

Understanding WhatsApp with WhatsApp History, Advantages, Strengths and Weaknesses

With social media, people from different parts of the world can connect with each other. One of the most popular social media today is WhatsApp. So, in this article, I am going to tell you the meaning, history, functions and benefits, advantages and disadvantages of WhatsApp.

Based on the ranking of social media in the category Internet and telecom > Social networks carried out by Similar Web on January 1, 2019, WhatsApp ranks 8th. Meanwhile, for the global ranking, WhatsApp ranks 30th.

WhatsApp acts as an online messaging application which is currently widely used for various things such as personal chats, communities, webinars etc. For more information on the meaning of WhatsApp, let's look at the explanation below.

Whatsapp Definition

WhatsApp Messenger or WhatsApp is a cross-platform instant messaging application on smartphones that allows users to send and receive messages such as SMS without using credit but an Internet connection. WhatsApp has a similar base to BlackBerry Messenger.

WhatsApp was released in January 2009. However, in 2014 WhatsApp officially became the property of Facebook after going through an acquisition process for 8 months. On WhatsApp, you can send text, photos, audio, files, and images to other users, make calls, video calls, and create stories.

To use WhatsApp, all you have to do is sign up using your mobile number. WhatsApp can be run on multiple platforms, namely Android, BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry OS, iOS, Series 40, Windows Phone, Symbian, and Web.

History of WhatsApp

WhatsApp Inc was founded on February 24, 2009 in Mountain View, California, United States by Brian Acton and Jan Koum who previously worked as employees of Yahoo!. After leaving Yahoo! in September 2007, they traveled to South America to freshen up and then applied on Facebook but were rejected.

In January 2009, after purchasing an iPhone, Koum visited his friend Alex Fishman to discuss the potential of the App Store application industry. At that time, Koum had the $400,000 he had raised working at Yahoo! To realize his idea, he certainly needs an iPhone developer.

Fishman finally introduced Koum, a Russian iPhone developer he found on RentACoder.com, namely Igor Solomennikov. The app he made was called "WhatsApp". Subsequently, he founded WhatsApp Inc in California on February 24, 2009.

However, the process is not smooth, which means WhatsApp itself often crashes and doesn't work as expected. Eventually, Koum felt hopeless and intended to close his business. However, Brian Acton encouraged to keep trying over the next few months. Acton himself eventually joined Koum. In October 2009, Brian Acton recruited five former Yahoo! to invest $250,000 in seed funding on WhatsApp and be awarded the position of co-founder.

It wasn't until November 2009 that WhatsApp was finally officially released on the App Store for the iPhone. After successfully entering the App Store, in January 2010 WhatsApp was introduced in the BlackBerry Store and then in August 2010 WhatsApp support for Android OS was added.

WhatsApp status has also changed from free to paid. Active WhatsApp users had reached 200 million in February 2013. This number doubled in December and increased again to reach 500 million in April 2014. By September 2015, active WhatsApp users had reached 900 million.

Due to the popularity and rapid development of WhatsApp, Facebook got interested and wanted to buy WhatsApp. Finally, WhatsApp managed to transfer ownership to Facebook after buying it for a fantastic price of $22.

Whatsapp features and benefits

1. Personal or group chats

With WhatsApp we can send messages with other users both text, audio, document files, photos and videos. Not only personal chats, but we can also create group chats that contain multiple other WhatsApp users. For example, we want to create a group chat that contains extended family members to facilitate communication between families separated by distance.

2. Educational media

Currently, it is not uncommon for people to use WhatsApp as a medium for learning, such as classes/tutoring (both in group chats or personal chats), seminars, and online workshops. By simply creating a group chat and then inviting participants to join the group, the course can begin.

3. Business Media

WhatsApp is also often used for commercial activities, for example for promotion, information and ordering. Professionals using WhatsApp can promote their business privately to other users or by posting their business information in group chats. If anyone is interested in the business, they will usually be directed to contact the business owner's WhatsApp for more information and to place orders.

4. Sharing information and news

You can share information and news with other WhatsApp users by sending them to personal chats or group chats.

5. Video and voice calls

So, in addition to being able to send messages, you can also call other users and also make video calls with them. To keep your video and voice calls going noise-free, make sure your internet connection is stable.

6. Create a status/story

Just like Instagram, on WhatsApp you can also create statuses/stories that your friends (other WhatsApp users) can see. You can enter text, captions, stickers and doodles on the stories with available features.

7. Community Media

You can use WhatsApp as a gathering place for an online community. You can connect with other members of the community so that spreading information and communicating is easy. With smooth communication, it is hoped that community activities can go well.

What are the pros and cons of WhatsApp

Benefits of WhatsApp

Here are some of the benefits of WhatsApp.

1. How to use it is easy

WhatsApp is easy to use even for new users. All you need to do is register your phone number to be able to use WhatsApp.

2. Automatic phone number synchronization

You don't need to enter your friend's contacts one by one in WhatsApp because all your smartphone phone numbers will automatically sync and go to WhatsApp directly. You can simply search for your friend's name on WhatsApp without having to add them.

3. Can save chat/chat

If you are going to change to a new smartphone, you can backup your WhatsApp chats. This way you won't lose your WhatsApp chats that were on your old smartphone.

4. Use an internet connection

To be able to use WhatsApp, you need an Internet connection. Of course, this method is more efficient than using SMS which requires credit.

6. Can unsend messages

You can unsend your messages in personal and group chats by tapping on the “Delete for everyone” option. Thus, the message you cancel will not be read by the recipient.

7. Personal information may be withheld

You can hide your personal information such as status and also profile picture from other users. Additionally, you can hide your last seen status and read receipts so that other users don't know when you were last online and whether you read their messages or not. But, you must remember that you will also not be able to see the last seen and read receipt status of other people.

Disadvantages of WhatsApp

Here are some of WhatsApp's shortcomings.

1. Unnecessary quota

Unlike other messaging apps, if you want to see images, videos, or audio sent to you, you have to download them first. This method is of course quite useless because if you want to open a photo, for example, you have to download it.

2. Requires strong enough internet connection

To be able to use WhatsApp Web, you definitely need a strong enough internet connection to use it smoothly. Because if your internet connection is weak, WhatsApp Web will be slow to receive a response.

3. Can only be used when the smartphone is on

You should know that WhatsApp Web can only work if your smartphone is always on. So if your smartphone is dead, you can't use WhatsApp Web, that's of course different from Line.

4. WhatsApp Web cannot voice call

Unlike the Line Desktop app, on WhatsApp Web you cannot use voice calls.

5. Unnecessary battery

Using WhatsApp Web for a long time will cause your smartphone to heat up quickly and waste battery power. According to the Avast 2017 survey results, WhastApp is a battery-wasting chat app. So, you should turn off push notifications especially if lots of chats appear.

Alright, I hope the discussion of whatsapp understanding, history, functions and benefits, pros and cons that has been explained above is helpful and best of luck. THANKS!