Page 104 - Mobile-En-V3

WhatsApp application

Free U.S. software is a centralized cross-platform

messaging service and Voice over Internet Protocol

(VoIP) service owned by Meta Corporation, allows users

to send text messages, voice messages, make voice and Figure 40: WhatsApp on
video calls, share photos, documents, users' locations, Google Play
and other media.

WhatsApp works on mobile devices and can also be accessed from computers using

the desktop app or WhatsApp web page The service requires users to provide a mobile

phone number to register for the service.

WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by American Brian Acton and Ukrainian CEO Jan Koum,

both former employees of Yahoo and based in Santa Clara, California.

The app was created by WhatsApp. in Mountain View California, which Facebook

acquired in February 2014 for $19.3.

It became the most popular messaging app in the

world by 2015 and has more than 2 billion users worldwide

as of February 2020. It has become the primary means of

electronic communication in many countries and locations

including Latin America, the Indian subcontinent and large

parts of Europe and Africa.

WhatsApp competes with a number of messaging services such as Kakautalek, Line and

WeChat, with ten billion daily messages sent on WhatsApp in January 2012.

WhatsApp is also available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Symbian OS and Windows

Phone 7 only (and on the iPad unofficially) and synchronizes with contacts on the

phone, so the user does not need to add names in a separate record.

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