In the midst of fierce competition in the instant messaging market to attract the trust and attachment of users to maximize profits, the “WhatsApp” application launched 3 new updates, at a time that experts considered “earlier” than expected, which called into question the reasons for the hurry.
The three updates include the services of using emojis to respond to messages, the ability to share huge files of up to 2 gigabytes, and doubling the maximum size of group conversations from 256 to 500 participants, according to the American technology website The Verge.
launching the feature of using emojis to reply to messages, a service found on other apps; Like Messenger, Slack and Telegram, WhatsApp users can now quickly interact with messages with emojis in each chat bubble. This means that users can add one of 6 different emojis to a message instead of write a reply.
The ability to share huge files of up to 2 GB can be considered a huge leap back to the previous limit of the new update of 100 MB, where users will be able to send high-resolution photos or videos in large sizes in business circles and among friends, ending the nightmare of having to compress Things before sending them via WhatsApp.
Expedite the appointment
These updates were not surprising. Last month, Meta, which owns the “WhatsApp” application, said that these features will appear “soon”, but it seems that it expedited their launch, amid heated competition with “Telegram”.
Regarding the reasons for the hasty launch of the new features, digital media and e-marketing consultant Mohammed Al-Harthy says, "WhatsApp wanted to launch the new features, to provide better services to its 2 billion monthly active users, who trust it and wait for everything new."
The digital media and e-marketing consultant adds to Sky News Arabia that the application wants to "achieving a comparative advantage over the rest of the instant messaging applications, especially Telegram, to attract more users, and then maximize profits, which is the goal of all technological applications."
The Telegram application is the closest competitor to WhatsApp, with more than 500 million active users, and it is classified as one of the applications that preserve the privacy of its users.
But Al-Harthy believes that none of the other applications is able to displace WhatsApp from the throne of the most used instant messaging applications, due to the continuous growth of Facebook and its possession of the technological and physical infrastructure necessary to secure its leadership, but at the same time he believes that he needs that continuous development. By launching features that make it always unique, to ensure that growth, and thus profits, will increase.”
And last April, “WhatsApp” added a new feature by increasing the number of people who can participate in group video calls from 8 people to 32 people.