Facebook-owned WhatsApp has launched video-calling globally. This was the most awaited feature to roll out to the billions of users in Android, iOS, and Windows. Video calling feature was the most requested feature by the WhatsApp users.
These are the 5 facts you need to know about the world’s most popular messaging service.
► India Is WhatsApp’s Biggest Market
Yes, India is the biggest market for WhatsApp. According to WhatsApp, it’s instant messaging and voice calling service has now boosted to 160 million monthly active users in India. The users/engagement might go up with the coming of video calling feature.
In addition to that, company’s vice president of business development Neeraj Arora revealed that the app has more active users in India than in any other country.
► WhatsApp Is Bigger Than Facebook In India
You heard it! with 160 million monthly active users in India, WhatsApp is bigger than its parent Facebook in India. Facebook reportedly has 155 million monthly active users in the country as of the late last month.
ALSO READ: Hike Messenger Rolls Out Video Calling Feature!
► WhatsApp Supports 10 Indian Languages
WhatsApp India supports 10 local Indian languages. WhatsApp’s vice president of business development Neeraj Arora said;
The important thing to note here is a lot of this work has been done by our own users. It’s crowdsourced, a lot of users were passionate about using WhatsApp in their own languages so we gave them a tool to help us translate WhatsApp in their own language.
► Video-calling Feature Optimized for India
The company claims that the video calling feature is specially optimized for telecom networks in regions like India. Neeraj Arora said;
How we have built this product is just like voice calls, which is if you have a great network condition — a WiFi or 4G — it will be HD quality, and you start moving to conditions which are not that great, it will be slightly low resolution, we hope it will still work but the quality will go up and down a little depending upon the quality of the network.
Arora continued saying about the early days of WhatsApp, the team worked largely to ensure that the app works great on different kind of phones and even 2G networks.
That’s what the focus was- if it works in India in different conditions, it will work everywhere else. And that really helped us get so many users so quickly in India.
ALSO READ: WhatsApp Officially Launched Video Calling Feature For Everyone!
► 8 billion messages exchanged on Diwali
According to WhatsApp’s product development head, Manpreet Singh;
On the day of Diwali alone, 8 billion messages and 1.5 billion photos were sent on WhatsApp in India. That was a record high for the number of messages sent on a single day for us.
