Launched in 2009, the Sequoia-backed popular messaging app of the decade, just announced on its blog some fast updates for the iPhone users yesterday.

WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging app that is immensely popular among the youth and businesspersons alike. This cross functionality simply means that people with Nokia, Blackberry, Android and iPhone handsets can message each other in a hassle free manner.

With a staggering fan following of more than 200 million, the app users send a record 20 million messages in a single day's span. The company is touted to be bigger than Twitter with Europe and India being the major user landscape. In fact rumors mills are abuzz that Google and Facebook are likely acquisition candidates for the firm.

Keeping in line with its popularity, the firm announced on its blog that it is releasing new version of the app on iPhone. Their business model is incorporating two major changes this time around:

1. The app is no longer going to be a compulsorily paid app on iPhone. It just went free for users in the first year. Unlike the earlier subscription plan where iPhone users were charged $.99 for one time use and later $0.99 thereon, the new plan allows a one annual payment only with a $1 subscription fee. The company had been hinting at this change for the past several months.

Their freemium strategy is adept with the latest business trends of the app world. Since there is no shortage of apps that offer the same service, it is all about who enjoys a greater competitive edge at the end of the day. And thus most app making firms today opt for a freemium model i.e offering the apps free of cost in the first year and moving to a paid subscription slowly. "We feel that this model will allow us to become the communications service of the 21st century, and provide you the best way to stay in touch with your friends and family with no ads getting in the way".  

2. A second change they announced was the a message history backup on iCloud. The users simply have to go to their main Settings > Chat Settings > Chat Backup to enable the function. As one reinstalls the app, they are prompted to restore their message backup from iCloud.

It is no doubt that WhatsApp is a landmark app of the decade, that has carved its own niche in a space where Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Viber,Path, Line, KakaoTalk, BBM are equally fighting it out with its freemium services to users.


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