The majority of its 2 billion users are in India and Brazil. WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world (opens in a new tab) and used in nearly 200 countries. That was the only way to communicate, which was astounding – that is, until I looked at the numbers. While in Chile, I had to download the app to connect to a local. It's spilled into American life with millions of users, but while abroad I've noticed stores and billboards post WhatsApp information instead of phone numbers or other contact information. Outside the U.S., WhatsApp's appeal is massive. With end-to-end encryption for each message, I now feel more secure using WhatsApp than when using other platforms to communicate. Nice and simple, and most importantly, user-friendly. How refreshing to open up WhatsApp and feel like I'm back with my usual text messages.

Unlike most messaging apps, WhatsApp mimics SMS texting services instead of trying to build a new interface. Plus, did I really want Facebook privy to all my text conversations?īut once I started using WhatsApp, I saw how seamless it actually was. I prefer iMessage on my iPhone and felt overwhelmed by Messenger, Slack, Skype, Signal, Google Hangouts, Google Voice, Snapchat, and even Twitter DMs. After moving to South America at the beginning of 2020 to work remotely for four months, I slowly accepted I'd have to download the Facebook-owned app. I'd always dismissed it as yet another messaging platform, but now I get it.

With stickers, statuses, groups, and easy-to-use messages, it's more than just a texting service.

Whats up with whatsapp