WhatsApp and ways to improve it

I remembered our situation before WhatsApp. It was all text messages with a limit of 100 SMS/ day and 1 rupee/SMS . Now it is free of cost in mobile packs but we are not using it, as we are comfortable with WhatsApp.Free Text Messages is like an add-on to data packs This is the situation of normal text messages these days.

Today’s conversation be like ,Share me your WhatsApp number, I will text you. I will share my live location on WhatsApp.Let’s have a video call in group.

WhatsApp is simple and people love it .WhatsApp today has more than 2 billion users who are actively sending messages and communicating over voice around the globe.Let’s see what are all the features which made us stick to whatsApp.

In 2009, the former employees of Yahoo!, Brian Acton, and Jan Koum came together to incorporate WhatsApp. It is quite ironic to note that both Koum and Acton were rejected by Facebook which later acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014.

Features of WhatsApp that have impact in our daily life:

1. Location sharing : Just in case if you wish to visit your friend’s place for the first time(imagine without whatsapp) but now “Hey Dude ,share me your location ,I ll reach there ”, Isn’t it easy ?
2. WhatsApp Audio/Video Calls : Just a tap on the icon , we can see our friend or family member’s face wherever they are with mobile data/Wifi alone.This supports international calling .No matter even if my friend is in other part of the world I can still able to talk to him and see his face .
3. Sending a single message to multiple users at the same time(Broadcast message) : Say If I want to share a good news with many people ,instead of opening each person’s chat and typing the same message I can just broadcast message.
4. WhatsApp Voice Message: My favourite one.We usually study only the previous night before the semester .So this feature helped us a lot where we split among us and each of us learn a topic and share it with other friends through voice messages no matter wherever we are.Sometimes be cautious while playing the audio in front of your family because we know our friends they may send anything.
5. WhatsApp group : To organize an event or get together or friends group call ,this plays a major role.
6. Picture-in-Picture Mode: Able to see video content within the app.
7. Mute Chat and Groups : Sometimes when we feel few groups are annoying this option helps.
8. Ad-free messaging.
9. Send Money using UPI.
10. WhatsApp Dark Mode.
11. Sharing pictures,documents,contacts .
12. Whatsapp web .

Imagining a normal day without WhatsApp is difficult as we are used to it.

Features that WhatsApp can provide/improve:

1. Do Not Disturb Mode : turn off notifications .
2. Editing a Message
3. Adding Reactions to Message instead of replying
4. Cool Snapchat filters in WhatsApp stories.
5. Threaded Messaging: Similar to the reply to comment on Facebook
6. Polls: Ability to ask a question to friends/family in the group.
7. Pinned Messages in Group conversion
8. In-app image enhancement tools: Tools to edit the image before sharing it with the group.
9. Hide Online Status: Showing online when we use the app forces us to reply to the people
10. The maximum limit of 256 members per group has to be increased and a video size of 16 Mb is only allowed.
11. Note to Self: to save personal notes (like in Signal)
12. Ability to use WhatsApp web without mobile phone.
13. Scheduled messages .
14. Games to play in WhatsApp groups would be more fun and keeps user engaged

WhatsApp’s privacy policy and its effect on other apps :

WhatsApp’s new privacy policy is a gift to other messaging platforms like ‘Telegram’ and ‘Signal’. When WhatsApp made clear that it planned to share a lot more information with parent company Facebook, including sensitive data such as phone number, device particulars, and location, some users were not happy.WhatsApp will have access to your location, usage statistics, device information, purchase history, and more. It can then share that data with Facebook for advertising purposes. Not exactly what most people want from a messaging app.

What are the extra features in other apps like Telegram,Signal compared to WhatsApp? Is it worth switching to other apps ? To be continued ….