WhatsApp turns 12: Here's looking at top 5 features that are oh-so-wonderful

WhatsApp is probably the most used app in the Indian context. Youngsters, parents, teachers, businessmen everyone are on this app and their daily business happens here. In many ways, our day starts by checking the WhatsApp notifications and ends with the same. WhatsApp has completed 12 years. 

WhatsApp has tweeted from its official handle that more than two billion users who use WhatsApp each month to send 100 billion messages and to connect more than one billion calls each day. 

More than two billion users turn to WhatsApp each month to send 100 billion messages and to connect more than one billion calls each day. We are and will continue to be committed to your privacy with end-to-end encryption. Always and forever. Happy 12 years WhatsApp! pic.twitter.com/a61wqDassg — WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) February 24, 2021

WhatsApp has been in an ever-evolving space. The app has received a number of updates over time and now it has become a feature-rich messenger. The app received a lot of heat because of the recently introduced privacy policy, and many have switched to other apps such as Telegram and Signal. Let's take look at the top five features of WhatsApp.

1. Voice and Video calling 

WhatsApp has literally changed the situation with the introduction of this feature. People were completely dependent upon their mobile operator for calls and videos. The messenger actually democratised the online calling culture. Today we call anyone in the world within a second using this feature. You can not only do video calls but you can add up to 8 people in a single call. 

2. Blue Tick

There was no way to get the status of a text that you have sent. WhatsApp introduced a feature of blue tick which gives us an idea that the messages you have sent are either read or not read by the recipient. Today, this is a very regular feature for all of us, but only the SMS generation knows how many misunderstandings and arguments have happened over a single message. 

3. Last Seen

Last Seen on WhatsApp is one of the most popular features. The last seen app as the name suggests gives us the last login time on the app. Users can turn it off according to their usage. Users can go to setting-- account--privacy--disable last seen in order to turn off this feature.

4. Biometric lock

WhatsApp has really focused on the security aspect in recent time and the introduction of fingerprint lock in the app is one fine example of it. The users can keep all their chats secure by locking them which can only be unlocked with the registered fingerprint. This gives an additional layer of security to the user experience. 

5. Frequequently forwarded 

WhatsApp is used by a huge number of people and this acts in both ways. The app has been often used by people to spread fake news and spam. The frequently forwarded label has incredibly helped in tracing the exact number of times a message has been sent before. WhatsApp lets you forward a text to only five members from your phone book. There will be a frequently forwarded label added to your message when you try to forward this message to others.  And with this, the message is restricted to only one chat at a time. According to the company, this feature has helped in stopping or slowing down the fakes news and spread of rumours.