Timeline of WhatsApp

Last updated

The following is a timeline of WhatsApp , a proprietary cross-platform, encrypted, instant messaging client for smartphones. [1]

YearMonth and dateEvent typeDetails
2009February 24Company Jan Koum incorporates WhatsApp in USA. [2]
2009AugustProductWhatsApp 2.0 is released on the App Store for the iPhone. [3]
2009OctoberFunding Brian Acton persuades five ex-Yahoo! friends to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and is granted co-founder status. [2]
2009DecemberProductWhatsApp for the iPhone is updated to send photos. [2]
2010AugustProductWhatsApp support for Android OS is added. [4]
2011January 21Competition WeChat, a messenger app, is founded. [5] It eventually becomes very popular in China.
2011AprilFundingIn Series A round, WhatsApp founders agree to take $8 million from Sequoia Capital on top of their $250,000 seed funding, after months of negotiation with Sequoia partner Jim Goetz. [2]
2012January 6SecurityAn unknown hacker publishes a website that makes it possible to change the status of an arbitrary WhatsApp user, as long as the phone number was known. [6] [7]
2012AugustSecurityThe WhatsApp support staff announce that messages were encrypted in the "latest version" of the WhatsApp software for iOS and Android (but not BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian), without specifying the cryptographic method. [8]
2013FebruaryUserbaseWhatsApp's user base swells to about 200 million active users and its staff to 50. [2]
2013JulyFundingSequoia invests another $50 million in Series B round, valuing WhatsApp at $1.5 billion. [9]
2013July 16ProductWhatsApp goes free, with an annual subscription fee of $1 after the first year. [10] [11]
2013AugustCompetition Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging service, launches. [12]
2013AugustProductWhatsApp introduces voice messaging. [13]
2014February 19Company Facebook, Inc. announces its acquisition of WhatsApp for US$19 billion, its largest acquisition to date. [14] Facebook pays $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units granted to WhatsApp's founders. [15]
2014MarchSecuritySomeone discovers a vulnerability in WhatsApp encryption on the Android application that allows another app to access and read all of a user's chat conversations within it. [16]
2014NovemberProductWhatsApp introduces a feature named Read Receipts, which alerts senders when their messages are read by recipients. Within a week, WhatsApp introduces an update allowing users to disable this feature so that message recipients do not send acknowledgements. [17]
2015January 21ProductWhatsApp launches WhatsApp Web, a web client which can be used through a web browser by syncing with the mobile device's connection. [18]
2015January 21ProductWhatsApp announces its policy on cracking down on 3rd-party clients, including WhatsApp+. [19] Users would not be able to use WhatsApp's services at all until the third-party apps are uninstalled. [20]
2015MarchProduct Voice calls between two accounts are added. [21]
2015DecemberLegalWhatsApp is briefly shut down in Brazil after it refuses to place wiretaps on certain WhatsApp accounts. [22] It is shut down in Brazil again in May 2016 and in July 2016. [23]
2016January 18ProductJan Koum announces that WhatsApp will no longer charge its users a $1 annual subscription fee. [24] [25] There is still no clear plan for monetizing WhatsApp. [26]
2016MarchLegalDiego Dzodan, a Facebook executive, is arrested by Brazilian federal police after Facebook fails to turn over information from his WhatsApp messaging account into a judge's request for a drug trafficking investigation. [27]
2016March 2ProductWhatsApp introduces its document-sharing feature, initially allowing users to share PDF files with their contacts. [28]
2016April 5Product, SecurityWhatsApp and Open Whisper Systems announce that they finish adding end-to-end encryption to "every form of communication" on WhatsApp, and that users could now verify each other's keys. [29] [30] [31]
2016May 10ProductWhatsApp is introduced for both Windows and Mac operating systems. [32]
2016NovemberProduct Video calls between two accounts are added. [33]
2017September 5ProductWhatsApp starts external testing of an enterprise platform which enables companies to provide customer service to users at scale. [34] Airline KLM launches such a service. [35]
2018JulyProductGroup voice and video calls for up to four accounts [36] and labelling for forwarded messages are added [37]
2019JanuaryProductLimit on the forwarding of a message is lowered to five times [38]
2020AprilProductGroup calls can be up to 8 accounts [39] and 'highly forwarded' messages can be forwarded only to a single person [40]
2021AugustProductWhatsApp announces that users will be able to send photos and videos that will disappear after one view. [41]
2022MayProductWhatsApp adds the ability to react to messages with six preset emoji (thumbs up, heart, joined hands, tears of laughter, mouth open in surprise, crying face). Share file limit is increased from 100MB to 2GB, and the default maximum size of group chats is increased from 256 to 512. [42]
2022JulyProductWhatsApp adds the ability to react to messages with any emoji. [43]
2023MayProductWhatsApp announces users will be able to edit messages up to 15 minutes after being sent. [44]
2023JuneProductWhatsApp announces Channels, a feature that allows one-to-many communication for updates, and no defined limit for number of followers. Channels are not end-to-end encrypted, unlike messages in groups or chats. [45] [46]
2023AugustProductWhatsApp relaunches its app for Apple computers, adding audio and video group calling. [47]
2023SeptemberProductWhatsApp adds the ability for users to share photos and videos in high-definition. [48]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">WhatsApp</span> Messaging and VoIP service owned by Meta Platforms

WhatsApp is an instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers. The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client.

iMessage Instant messaging service by Apple

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft SwiftKey</span> Virtual keyboard app

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messenger (software)</span> American instant messaging app

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Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to store photos in a password-protected area called "My Eyes Only". It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telegram (software)</span> Cross-platform instant messaging service

Telegram Messenger, commonly known as Telegram, is a cloud-based, encrypted, cross-platform, instant messaging (IM) service. It was originally launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android on 20 October 2013. It allows users to exchange messages, share media and files, and hold private and group voice or video calls as well as public livestreams. It is available for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and web browsers. Telegram also offers end-to-end encryption in voice and video calls, and in optional private chats, which Telegram calls Secret Chats.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Signal (software)</span> Privacy-focused encrypted messaging app

Signal is an open-source, encrypted messaging service for instant messaging, voice calls, and video calls. The instant messaging function includes sending text, voice notes, images, videos, and other files. Communication may be one-to-one between users or may involve group messaging.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Messages</span> Messaging application developed by Google

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References

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