Before Kim Kardarshian broke the Internet, Whatsapp almost did back in 2014 when it was acquired by Facebook for US$22 billion. Everybody was talking about it, and speculating the changes that may come with this piece of exciting news.
Some thought that we will finally have to pay for the service. Though it is stated that users will get one year free trial, and then we will have to start paying US$1 a year, most of us are not paying for the service.
Then, towards the end of 2014, Whatsapp introduced the blue double ticks — a game changer for stalkers. And almost a year after the acquisition, Whatsapp is making news again with the latest feature — Whatsapp Web.
How much it can save you on mobile?
According to the Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Malaysians sent a total of 90 billion SMSes in 2012. This adds up to RM13.5 billion spent on just text messages. However, if everyone changes to a smartphone with a data plan of 1GB a month, which costs about RM576 a year, we could have saved a staggering amount.
Monthly 1GB (M) Pass
Cost: RM48/month
Total data: 1GB/month
If you just use the data for Whatsapp chatting, you can probably send over 5,000 messages. That will cost about RM500 in SMS charges (RM0.10 per SMS). SMS fees are pure profit for the cellular carriers. They’re basically free for carriers to send, but they can often cost ten cents or more per message.
Whatsapp save you: RM500 – RM48 = RM452
How much more can Whatsapp Web save you?
Whataspp Web is not unheard of. In a Business Insider article published on December, 2014, the team at AndroidWorld.nl discovered mention of “Whatsapp Web” hidden in the code of Whatsapp’s latest update.
According to Whatsapp in their blog post, “Our Web client is simply an extension of your phone: the Web browser mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device — “this means all of your messages still live on your phone.”
The real benefit of this is that you’ll be spending less time unlocking your phone to check and reply messages. And most importantly, less time fixing your auto correct fails. WhatsApp Web will let you send messages much faster. Hopefully boosting your productivity (unless it means you’re just send more messages).With Whatsapp App, you will be better connected while you are at work through the web version which requires Wi-Fi connection. This means, you will be saving even more on mobile data — which you can then use to upload your selfies on Instagram.
However, iPhone users may be disappointed to find out that the new messaging service currently only works with Google’s Chrome browser and will not be available to iPhone users “due to Apple platform limitations”.
