What’s up with WhatsApp?

Do you guys know how WhatsApp came up? Jan Koum was tired of copy pasting the same info to different friends. The idea was that if you were in a meeting or had low battery, you could let a group of people know the situation simultaneously so they knew not to call you. Like letting everyone know at the same time what was going on. Hence the name “what’s up”, that cleverly became WhatsApp.

The idea stuck and everyone started making group conversations with their friends. The rest is history until Facebook bought it in 2014. WhatsApp - that turned 8 in February, 24 - has been a simple hub of activity, people go on there to read and type messages. They send and receive photos and videos, but they don’t scroll endlessly through streams of other people’s content like other social media. That's the reason WhatsApp made a radical update to its app, turning it for the first time into a platform for consuming content.

The new update is called Status. Have you tried it? It works like Snapchat: you share photos, GIFs or videos overlaid with drawings, emojis and captions. All still encrypted. These will be visible in a separate tab visible to your selected contacts for 24 hours, before disappearing. Fear not, it is possible to manage who sees them and who won't in the privacy settings. Friends can reply to the new Status by tapping the reply button, which will be sent as a new WhatsApp message.

Sure this move will open the app to potential businesses and advertising stuff. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, babes!