Most smartphone owners already know that WhatsApp is an instant messaging app operating by a subscription business model. This app uses the Internet to send messages, images, videos, and audio messages. What many of these owners don’t yet know is when WhatsApp will be available for Windows phone users.
Although there isn’t yet an app available on the Windows Phone platform, they rolled out the Android version recently. There have been two minor updates to it. So, v2.11.680.0 is already out, but it doesn’t have any new features in it. They simply fixed some bugs and made other minor improvements. V2.12.20 then followed. This does have some brand-new features, including the ability to send and receive audio files and a toggle button so that you can receive read receipts. There are also new animations and chat bubbles and an option for selecting multiple contacts in chat. This leaves Windows platform users yearning for their chance to pick up this app. Some sources say that will happen really soon.
Many people wonder why it’s taken so long for WhatsApp to come to the Windows platform. The main reason is that this platform doesn’t have as many users as Android and iOS. Therefore, it only made sense for them to release their app to these other platforms first. Nonetheless, the International Business Times Australia says that the Windows version of WhatsApp will have a handful of new features with it when released. One such feature is a video calling feature that’s similar to Viber and Skype. In fact, there’s also a feature known as “Call via Skype” that will allow for instant video calls via Skype when you’re talking to another user.
With all this talk of Skype being used by the new Windows version of WhatsApp, many people are wondering whether the app will surpass Skype when it comes to call quality. As we all know, Skype is a data hog. Even so, many people believe that Skype will still surpass WhatsApp in terms of quality because Skype has had many years of experience improving their voice and video calling aspects. Of course, this doesn’t mean this can’t change in the future.
One nice thing about WhatsApp in comparison to Skype is that they’ve maintained their stance not to sell ads. This has meant that it takes them longer to update and create their Windows App, but they want users to have a year to try it for free before charging them only 99 cents a year afterwards.
There’s also a rumor that WhatsApp will just be attainable by “invite-only” to Windows phone users. This is similar to what they’ve done with the initial launch of their Android app. From there it’s gone on to become available to everyone on Android, but this was seemingly their way of releasing the first beta version so that they could work out all of its bugs. Of course, this is only speculation, and we’ll need to wait and see what actually happens.
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