The past few months have seen WhatsApp transform from an instant messaging app to a VoIP service provider.
After serving as an IM-only app for the past five or so years, WhatsApp voice calling was finally introduced on this app early this year. The feature was first released on Android devices and later on it was rolled out to the iPhones and BlackBerry smartphones. A few days ago, those using Windows Phone smartphones were happy to report that the voice calling feature was now working on their devices.
All these developments are courtesy of Facebook, which bought the app for a fee of $19 billion in February last year. Since that period, WhatsApp has also moved from serving around 400 million people in the world and now it accounts for more than 800 million people. This is a huge achievement in just about a year; something that the owner of Facebook is really relishing as he has on many occasions said that it only gets interesting to do business with a billion people.
Other features that have come to this platform since the Facebook takeover are blue ticks, double ticks, a new user interface and many others. This is not the end of WhatsApp’s development as more is expected to come to the platform, for instance, B2C communication as well as free video calling.
Save WhatsApp chats on Google Drive
This is not the first time the news of WhatsApp introducing the ability to save chats on Google Drive is coming out. It happened sometime back and after appearing on several beta versions, the feature disappeared. It is now back with WhatsApp 2.12.143 APK and now the users can create backups of their messages on Google Drive. This is a better way of doing things as you’ll have more storage space on your device. Furthermore, accessing these files from any device that can access Google Drive is very easy and fast.
Ethnic emojis coming to WhatsApp for Android
Racial or ethnic emojis have been dominating WhatsApp chats in the recent past, but only for those using WhatsApp Web. This PC client has some additions in the emojis that the users of the phone app cannot see; among them is the racial emojis.
In the latest WhatsApp 2.12.143 APK, this is no more an issue as the users of the phone app can also access different sets of racial emojis which they can share with friends based on their ethnic backgrounds. In the past, the color available was Caucasian, which had drawn some criticism from different users across the world.
Installing WhatsApp 2.12.143 APK
Since this application is still in beta, you won’t find it in the Google Play Store. However, it is available on the official website of the messenger and other third party websites like apkmirror.com. However, before you install this application, you must first of all remove the currently installed WhatsApp and create a backup of the conversations as well. After doing this, make sure you also tweak the security settings of your Android device so that the apps from unknown sources can be allowed to install.
Once the above is setup, head over to the official WhatsApp website and download the latest APK file. Locate the download folder on your phone and tap on the downloaded WhatsApp 2.12.143 APK free download to start installing it. This should take a few seconds and you’ll be required to activate your account using your usual phone number. Also ensure to restore your conversations during the setup so that you can continue chatting with your friends from where you left.
However, you must know that since this app is still in beta, it is not stable with respect to performance. You might experience some glitches and errors during execution of commands, which is why it is advisable to wait until the full and stable version is uploaded to the Google Play Store. Nevertheless, it is still a must-try for those enthusiastic users who always want to be ahead of others.
Related ItemsWhatsApp
