Mini Informal review #4 – Whatsapp IM (Now with Emoticon Support)

What is Whatsapp? You know what it is!
Well if you don’t, then you’re definitely missing out on something super great.
It’s a cross platform IM (Instant Messaging) service which kind of replicates what BBM does on a blackberry but it supports almost all platforms that anyone would care about –

Nokia Symbian S60 (3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 or newer)
Nokia S40 (6th edition or newer)
Windows Phone (OS 7.5 or newer)
iPhone (OS 3.1 or newer)
Android (OS 2.1 or newer)
BlackBerry (OS 4.5 or newer)

It’ll hopefully support Meego soon too, but no Bada support (like anyone cares :p)

What whatsapp offers –
1. No Need to sign-in/ log-in
2. Automatically checks for contacts in your phonebook and adds them to the favourites list if they’re on
Whatsapp too
3. Runs in the backgroud
4. Provides you with 3 notifications ( a little clock symbol if the message you sent is being transferred
to the server, a single green tick when the message is successfully received by the server, double
green ticks when the message is successfully received by the other user)
5. Ability to block contacts from texting you
6. Sharing Images/Videos/Music files/Location
7. Set personal status
8. And yes, finally after months and months of requests and mails to the Whatsapp team by thousands of
Symbian fans, they’ve finally added emoticon support to Whatsapp ( v2.6.46 onwards )
9. Offers group chats ( up to 10 candidates can be added )
10. Separate tone settings for IM’s from individual contacts and groups

But, please notice –
1. An unlimited data plan is preferred, as whatsapp may consume heavy data
2. Consumes a lot of battery ( because of lack of push support on Symbian )
3. The Symbian version, strangely, doesn’t offer the facility to turn off the client ( it can be minimized
but not turned off completely )
4. Free for one year and 1USD/year in the subsequent years

Downloads –
Download Whatsapp version 2.6.46 from external Link
Download From Whatsapp’s own site ( Strangely it still shows v2.6.37 with no emoticon support )
Download from Nokia store ( Again v2.6.37)

PS – v2.6.46 may or may not be available on the original website and/or nokia store as on 16th Nov 2011.
This is subject to change and this newer version may be available on whatsapp.com/nokia store shortly.
When, in future, newer versions may be released they may/would be available on whatsapp.com/nokia
store as those links are dynamic and older versions will/would be replaced with newer versions.
However, the external link I’ve provided will always provide v2.6.46

Regards
Ayush3090