Nowadays we can see more and more people travel (or even migrate) to different countries all around the world. If you are one of these people, or maybe you just live pretty far from your parents/ girlfriend/ friends, then messaging apps like Whatsapp are a greatest gift to you. This application allows you to have a long and interesting talk with anyone without taking its toll on the monthly phone bills, like good old home phones (or cell phones) do. Whatsapp in particular is one of the most popular instant messaging applications available today. It was recently acquired by Facebook for an enormous sum of money (around $20 billion or so). This app has more than 600 million registered users worldwide. If you want to join all of those people that use it every day, here is a short guide on how you can do that.
First of all, you need to download the app itself (naturally). It is absolutely free to download and use during your first year with this program. However, there is no need to be alarmed because the following year you will have to pay as little as $0.99 in order to be able to use it for a whole another year (the same goes for all the years after the second). Once you have downloaded the app, you will need to enter your phone number and all your contacts will be automatically added to Whatsapp’s contact list. Those contacts that are already registered in this app will be shown under the “favorites” category, which adds a nice little touch to the interface, in my opinion.
The next step will be updating your status (rejoice, people who always can’t make their mind up about their status in Facebook and other similar web sites). The way you do this is by either selecting one of the existing statuses or making your own. Strangely enough, most of the other similar apps do not seem to have this function.
Now, time to finally send some messages! You can choose to send a text message or leave a voiced one. In order to send the voice message, just select the person you wish to send it to and tap the microphone icon. This will start the recording. You have to continue holding the button until you are done: once you release it the app will automatically send your message.
Other popular features that this program contains include the option to send media files (such as videos, photos, etc.) to any contact in your list. You can also share the location you have sent it from. You can even create a group chat to discuss something interesting with your friends! In order to do that, just open up “Chats” and then select “New group”. You will have to enter the subject of the conversation and then select the participants.
A final feature I would like to mention here is the option to backup you chat history. You can do so manually or by selecting the time period in which your chat history will be automatically saved.