App of The Week : WhatsApp

What is WhatsApp? 

It is a cross-platform instant messaging app which lets you communicate with your contacts who are already on WhatsApp over Wifi/Data connection.

Why we need WhatsApp?
Most of the people might think "When there is SMS/MMS service, why we need WhatsApp?". Here are the list of advantages of WhatApp over SMS/MMS.

1. SMS/MMS is very costly compared to data used by WhatsApp.
2. WhatsApp allows you to send Image, Video, Audio, Location, Documents etc
3. WhatsApp has very good UI.
4. WhatsApp provides delivery/read report of the message.
5. WhatsApp even lets you know if other person is typing.
6. WhatsApp works even when you are out of your mobile network range provided You have WiFi connection.
7. WhatsApp message can be sent to your contacts anywhere in the world. There are no separate charges for National/International messages
8. No extra charges for using WhatsApp even when roaming.
9. You can make free calls on WhatsApp.
10. Group Chat is possible on WhatsApp whereas it is limited on SMS/MMS

How to download WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is available for the following mobile platforms:

1. Apple App Store
2. Google Play Store
3. BlackBerry
4. Nokia Symbian
5. Nokia Series 40
6. Windows Phone
7. Mac OS X 10.9+
8. Windows 8+ 64-bit
9. Windows 8+ 32-bit
10. WhatsApp web

WhatsApp User Interface:
WhatsApp UI is quite simple. On the top of opening screen, there is a search button, Message/Call/Contact button and Menu button.

Just below them,
All Conversations/Groups are listed under CHATS tab. A simple click on them will open specific conversation.
All Calls that were dialed/received are listed under CALLS tab.
All Contacts that are using WhatsApp are listed under CONTACTS tab.



WhatsApp Features:
1. Send Photos/Videos/Voice/location/contact instantly.
2. Call your online contacts for free
3. Quick Voice Message
4. Share your location using GPS to your contacts
5. Status of Message: The very handy and cool feature of WhatsApp is it lets you know in detail about the status of your message.

1. If single tick mark appears on your message, it is sent to WhatsApp server from your phone.
2. If double tick mark appears on your message, it is delivered to the recipient successfully
3. If double tick mark turns to blue, then your message is read by the recipient.

6. Last Seen Status: This is also a awesome feature that lets you know when other person was online.
7. Change the Wallpapers that appear when you are in a conversation. WhatsApp Wallpaper is the app for changing it.
8. Mark a message as favourite
9. Reply to a specific message
10. Detailed message info in a Group. Just long press to select a conversation and press info button at top. This will let you know if group members received the message or not.11. Detailed Group information such as Group Name, Group Media, Mute option, Custom Notifications & Optional Encryption status. Group members can edit the group Name, change the Group Photo. Only Group Admin can add members to the group. You can also make other person as Admin. You can exit the group anytime or keep it in mute if notifications are irritating you.

12. As seen in the screenshot above, You can also put your own WhatsApp status such as Available, Busy or popular quotes etc.

Few more features:

1. Access your favourite messages from Menu->Starred Messages. As said earlier, you can long press a message and star it.
2. You can search within a group or conversation. Just open a group/conversation and go to Menu->Search
3. You can e-mail/clear chat of a group or conversation. Just open it and go to Menu->More->Email Chat/Clear Chat.
4. You can block a person by opening his conversation, then go to Menu->More->Block. You can also Add shortcut on home screen there.
5. You can use WhatsApp on chrome by visiting web.whatsapp.com. On mobile, you need to go to Menu->WhatsApp Web and scan QR code

WhatsApp Settings:

Just Open WhatsApp and go to Menu->Settings. You can find the following settings:

1. Account Settings: You can Change your mobile number here. You can delete everything using "Delete my account" option here.

1. Under Privacy option, you can control who sees your Last seen, Profile photo, Status and Read receipts. You can also unblock the contacts that were previously blocked. This is one of the most important setting in WhatsApp that can change your life!

2. Chats settings: Menu->Settings->Chats

1. You can change the App Language, Wallpaper and Font size settings here
2. Chat backup: This is also one of the important option. It will let you create local storage backup or Google drive backup.
3. Under Chat history, you can Delete/E-mail/Clear/Archive all chats.

3. Notification Settings: Menu->Settings->Notifications

1. You can set Notification tone, vibration and Notification light colour settings here. I don't think Notification colour setting will work on Le phones.
2. You can set an interesting Popup notification setting here. This will popup a small window whenever you receive a message & you can quickly reply.
3. Similar settings for Group and Call notifications.

4. Data Usage Settings: Menu->Settings->Data Usage

1. Network Usage: This is one of the interesting option. It will show how many messages sent/received along with data.
2. You can set Media Auto-download settings with Mobile data/Wi-Fi and Roaming
3. Call Settings: This is one of the interesting setting in WhatsApp. You can reduce the data usage on WhatsApp call.

5. Contacts, About and Help: You can check WhatsApp version there, read FAQ, Terms, Privacy policy. You can use Contact us to reach developers. You can enable hidden contacts from Menu->Settings->Contacts->Show All Contacts.

[UPDATE 2] Recently, WhatsApp has updated their Privacy policy. You may get a notification like the one below while using it. Please do not accept it. If you have pressedaccept already, you still have 30 days to go to Account settings and opt out of new privacy policy.