10 milestones in the history of these 10 years of WhatsApp

The user on foot broke into a smile on his face and the telephone operators began to tremble. It's been a decade since the appearance of one of the applications that has most changed the way we communicate with each other. Such is the change that it has brought to each of us that, before calling by phone, we use WhatsApp. Why bother making a call, with the consequent expense, when we can send a 'free' text message or an audio with our voice, also 'free'? And yes, we put 'free' in quotes because, indeed, when the service is free... the product is you.

10 years goes a long way. From a service that began as a paid service (one-time and initial fee for iOS, monthly for Android) and in which we could only send and receive text messages, to an endless number of possibilities, among which is the decision, somewhat controversial, to bring the messaging service closer to the ways and forms of a social network with the appearance of its own Stories, called 'States'. And since a decade goes a long way, we have decided to mark ten moments of WhatsApp that marked its history forever, ten milestones that made up the service that today is used by more than a billion people around the world every month.

Ten years of WhatsApp, ten unique moments in its history

February 24, 2009. WhatsApp is born

It was a Ukrainian immigrant named Jan Koum who founded WhatsApp, Inc. in 2009. He had previously been COO of the Yahoo! Initially, the application consisted merely of informing the user of when a contact from their phone book was available to talk.It first appeared on BlackBerry, and then on iOS for iPhone. The user could program 'states' in which he announced that he could be available for a chat. In December of this year, the possibility of sending video and photos to users appeared.

2010. The geolocation service is enabled

Among the millions of messages that we send every day through them, many of them to communicate to the other person where we are. 'We are in this bar, come in' and there we send our location. Subsequently, the live location function was enabled, something very useful for when we needed to keep an eye on our children or adults. Live location allows you to follow the location of a certain person in real time.

2011. Groups appear for the first time

Terror and panic. One of the best services that WhatsApp has been able to bring. We find ourselves in this dichotomy. How can the same function be useful and exhausting? Well, try being in a work group, a place where we must be by obligation and, at the same time, we are terrified of its notifications. Brothers-in-law, relatives, parents of children… groups for all tastes and colors, space in which more memes and inconsequential images are shared.

2013. Voice messages arrive

'Calm down, I'll send you an audio later' or 'why don't you call me instead of sending so many audios? or 'That's a millennial thing.' The audios have made many people stop calling on the phone. They're comfortable, can last up to 15 minutes and make communication much easier for when we can't write. The audios reached WhatsApp and became the preferred form of communication for millennials.If you have young people on WhatsApp you will know what we mean.

In addition, this year we reached one billion messages sent through the application.

2014. Confirmation of read messages arrives

'You haven't answered my message, I know you've read it', one of the most frightening phrases for any WhatsApp user and what many consider an attack on privacy. If you send a message and a double check appears, the recipient has received it. If it changes to color blue, you have opened it. And if you do not receive an answer, it can be considered an affront. Good thing WhatsApp made it easy to disable this option for all those who want to reply whenever they feel like it.

In 2014, WhatsApp was also bought by Facebook and reached 500 million active users.

2015. WhatsApp Web

Finally, the user could use WhatsApp on his PC… although with limitations. We simply had a replica of the application on our computer, having to link the mobile with the web browser and having to use it, out of obligation, if we wanted to use it on a big screen. A tool that we all expected and that, to this day, continues to be updated, although we all hope that it will be closer to what we find in Telegram itself.

2016. Encrypted messages and video calls

The end-to-end encryption makes an appearance to strengthen the security of messages sent through the tool. This function ensures that what is sent is read only by you and the person who receives it. The messages are secured with an encrypted key and only you and your interlocutor are able to access it.Video calls also appear for the first time to deal with Facetime. And one billion users are reached each month.

2017. the year of the ‘States’

He messed up a good one with the states. Where before it was a simple phrase to communicate something simple, it becomes an ephemeral video or photograph that emulates Instagram Stories. Many viewed this movement with suspicion, especially after the purchase of WhatsApp by an emporium dedicated to social networks and which already owned Facebook and Instagram.

2018. The 'stickers' and group calls are here

Users had been demanding stickers to share on WhatsApp, as they already had on Telegram, so they finally made an appearance. As a novelty, there are also group video calls, which facilitate the communication of up to four people at the same time in video format.In addition, WhatsApp reaches one and a half billion users who use the application. Almost nothing.

2019. WhatsApp turns 10

What will be the novelties that we will find in the following decade?

Via | WhatsApp