Introduction to WhatsApp

Introduction:

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! Because WhatsApp messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.

In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp you can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.

Founder:

WhatsApp Inc. was founded in 2009 by US citizens Brian Acton and Jan Koum (also the CEO), both former employees of Yahoo!, and is based in Mountain View, California. The company employs 55 people. The company is currently in the process of takeover after Facebook announced acquisition of WhatsApp on Feb 19, 2014, for US$19 billion.

 

Technical:

       WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). Upon installation, it creates a user account using one's phone number as the username.

WhatsApp software automatically compares all the phone numbers from the device's address book with its central database of WhatsApp users to automatically add contacts to the user's WhatsApp contact list. Previously the Android and S40 versions used an MD5-hashed, reversed-version of the phone's IMEI as password, while the iOS version used the phone's Wi-Fi MAC address instead of IMEI. In 2012 update to generates a random password on the server side.

 

Platform Support:

After months at beta stage, the application eventually launched in

i) November 2009 on the App Store for the iPhone.

ii) January 2010, support for BlackBerry smartphones.

iii) May 2010, support for Symbian.

iv) August 2010, support for Android.

v) In 2011, support for Nokia Series40 & a month later Windows Phone.

Achievement: (Regular Users - 500,000,000)

Half a billion people around the world are now regular, active WhatsApp users. In the last few months, WhatsApp grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day.