WhatsApp Messenger

For quite a long time, Skype was the most convenient application for Internet video calls. This 140MB app requires too much bandwidth, too much battery capacity, and doesn’t provide a good quality of connection in about 30% of cases. That was awful, but WhatsApp came to change the situation. This app requires the same amount of storage space but doesn’t make you wish to break your smartphone. 

Key Features

You can install WhatsApp on any of your iOS and Android devices. This app always runs in the background mode to receive calls and messages, but don’t worry about your battery life. WhatsApp is energy efficient. Unlike Skype, it also doesn’t consume a lot of mobile data, so even an ordinary data plan is enough for long international calls. 

Early versions of the app used to be very insecure, but today they are in partnership with WhisperSystems. This team is responsible for encryption algorithms in WhatsApp. All messages that you send can be decoded only on the device of the receiver. Hackers can intercept, but cannot read messages, because the initial cipher of each new text is always different. 

WhatsApp user interface is very simple. There are only two main displays. One is for the list of contacts, and the other is the chat. Similarly to all other instant messengers, you can set an individual background for each contact. 

Talking about chats, you can create unlimited person-to-person chats and group chats for up to 10 people. If you want to text to more people at a time, you have to pay for a separate WhatsApp Business app. In group chats, all participants are free to switch off notifications as well as to quit them. It means that there is no way for annoying spamming. The unique texting feature of this application is “Broadcast message.” It allows you to forward one message to a group of people, but they will see it as a direct message. This feature is an excellent time-saver. 

Voice and video calls in WhatsApp are very good. Though the image may look rather crispy, it doesn’t “eat” a lot of traffic. The quality of the audio is always excellent, leaving no chances to Viber and Skype. On the other hand, you can’t use the basic version of the app for group calls, which is a bit of a shame. WhatsApp is designed mostly for on-the-go use, so developers don’t mean it to be used for online conferences. 

On the whole, WhatsApp is an elegant and simple messenger. It doesn’t provide many features, but all of them work as you want them to. You can synchronize this messenger with a web version as well as with a desktop client. WhatsApp is one of the most secure and reliable solutions for person-to-person calls, and instant messaging.