With one billion users across multiple platforms, WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in daily usage — even if it technically requires a subscription to use after a set period of time. But apparently that wasn’t working out for the service, so some big changes are coming down the line.
First and foremost, WhatsApp has confirmed that it will be dropping all subscription charges from the service, making it a free-to-use app across all of its platforms. Up until this change, WhatsApp was free for only the first year. After that year was up, it cost $0.99 per year to keep using the service.
According to the official announcement, WhatsApp became aware that many of its users didn’t have access to a credit or debit card to pay for that yearly fee. As a result, they’re changing the model completely.
The switch to the free service will take some weeks, but WhatsApp is currently undergoing the process.
To accommodate this change, WhatsApp is making other key decisions, including allowing businesses and other groups to reach out to users of the messaging service. WhatsApp says that these will only be from groups and businesses that you want to hear from, though, so it will be interesting to see what that means when the changes start rolling out. The company also confirmed that there won’t be any ads within the app.
If you use WhatsApp, what do you think of the changes?
Source :
Androidandme