With more than one billion monthly active users, Whatsapp is undoubtedly the most popular instant messaging app in the world. Even though people use other similar apps, WhatsApp remains relevant and has even been used as a form of virtual communication during quarantine measures due to COVID-19.

However, with time comes changes and upgrades. In this article we will review what’s new in WhatsApp from 2020 until 2022, such as WhatsApp 2.0, WhatsApp web, WhatsApp for desktop computers and laptops, WhatsApp for iPadOS, WhatsApp for Apple Watch Series 6 devices, WhatsApp for Amazon Fire TV Stick and many more.

What are instant messaging apps?

Instant messaging (IM) is an application that allows messages to be exchanged between two parties via a computer or mobile phone. The difference with Instant Messaging Apps is that they allow you to exchange text only, whereas chat applications also allow you to send sound files, pictures, videos, voice messages and drawings.

There are several types of instant messaging apps available on the market today. Some are free while some require payment, so there is no shortage of options. Most popular ones include Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Skype, Line, Viber, Telegram, Snapchat, WeChat, iMessage, WhatsApp, Kik and many others.

What is WhatsApp?

WhatsApp was created by Jan Koum and Brian Acton in 2009 and released worldwide in 2010. It is currently owned by Facebook which acquired both companies in 2014. In 2013, WhatsApp had over 500 million users and today it boasts around 700 million active users per month.

The service is very similar to regular SMS services but instead of using telephone networks, WhatsApp uses the internet. This gives users better reliability and faster response times. If you’re not familiar with how the service works, here are the basics.

To start sending and receiving messages, both parties need to install the official WhatsApp app on their smartphones. Once installed, they each register themselves on WhatsApp with a phone number. They can then choose to share their WhatsApp contact information with friends and family members who may not have access to WhatsApp yet.

If someone sends them a message, the recipient can reply instantly thanks to the peer-to-peer nature of WhatsApp. To make things easier, you can also add contacts to your ‘People’ list and receive notifications when anyone adds you to their list or chats with you.

WhatsApp and Meta

It has been years since Meta – formerly known as Facebook – decided to buy the world’s biggest instant messaging app: WhatsApp. The biggest news nowadays is that Meta is planning on start making money from this purchase by opening up commercial services to let business owners access the WhatsApp Cloud Application Programming Interface in order to o build a custom dashboard so they can chat with customers and offer customer services in an easier way.

WhatsApp’s plan is to charge users, depending on the region, according to the amount of conversations businesses have with customers per day, with a rate from a fraction of a cent to more than 10 cents a conversation.

WhatsApp features and updates since 2020

WhatsApp has updated its services several times since 2020. In addition to all these updates, WhatsApp has introduced new features such as augmented reality, voice and video calls, stickers, GIFs and emojis, group chats, live streaming, and much more. Here are the latest WhatsApp updates:

• WhatsApp 2.0 – released in July 2021, it introduced several new features including: better performance, group and media sharing features, improved privacy settings, a redesigned interface, new emojis, voice calling with end-to-end encryption and live streaming.

• WhatsApp for Windows 10, MacOS Mojave and iPadOS.

• WhatsApp for Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Echo Show and Amazon Fire TV Stick.

• WhatsApp Web and WhatsApp Messenger app for desktops and laptops.

• WhatsApp for Apple Watch Series 6, iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max.

• WhatsApp for Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G and Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G .

• WhatsApp for LG G8 ThinQ 4K OLED.

• WhatsApp now supports multiple languages including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Turkish.

How to create a WhatsApp account?

To get started, download the official WhatsApp app on your smartphone or tablet device and sign up. You’ll need to provide your name and a phone number, so if you do not want to use your real number, you can always use a virtual number provided by us: Major Phones.

Once you have entered on WhatsApp the number assigned to you by our platform, you’ll see a verification code sent to your temporary number, so just copy it and paste it on WhatsApp to complete your registration process. If everything went well, you should have successfully created an account.

It is no secret that WhatsApp is and has always been the world’s most widely-used instant messaging platform. What started as one-to-one chats between friends and family has recently grown to involve much more – and it is constantly adding new innovative features that everyone should be taking advantage of. So don’t waste time give it a try with our quality SMS verification service. Sign up now!