WhatsApp is a popular mobile messaging application founded in February 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum. The initial idea was to create an application to display statuses in a phone’s contact menu, but it soon evolved into a platform for exchanging texts, images, and other media. The app saw a significant boost in usage with the introduction of Apple’s push notifications in June 2009, and by February 2013, it had reached 200 million active users[1]. Facebook[2] acquired WhatsApp in 2014, and it has since introduced numerous features and enhancements including message encryption, document sharing, group audio and video calls, and support for stickers. Today, WhatsApp supports multiple platforms and has over 1 billion users worldwide. Despite facing various legal issues and controversies, it continues to play a significant role in global communication.
WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an messagerie instantanée (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Méta. 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 appareils mobiles, 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.
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Screenshot  Screenshot depicting WhatsApp's home screen in 2024. | |||||||||
| Original author(s) | Brian Acton, Jan Koum | ||||||||
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| Developer(s) | Métaplateformes, Will Cathcart (Head of WhatsApp) | ||||||||
| Initial release | February 2009 | ||||||||
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| Preview release(s) [±] | |||||||||
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| Written in | Erlang | ||||||||
| Système d'exploitation | Android, iOS, iPadOS, KaiOS, macOS, Windows, Windows Phone, Wear OS, Web, Meta Quest (The latter two require one-time verification from the mobile app client.) | ||||||||
| Size | 183.7 MB (iOS) 78.6 MB (Android) | ||||||||
| Available in | 40 (iOS) and 60 (Android) languages | ||||||||
| Type | Messagerie instantanée, VoIP | ||||||||
| License | Proprietary software with EULA "European Region" "others" | ||||||||
| Site web | whatsapp | ||||||||
The service was created by WhatsApp Inc. of Mountain View, Californie, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion. It became the world's most popular messaging application by 2015, and had more than 2 billion users worldwide by February 2020. By 2016, it had become the primary means of Internet communication in regions including Latin America, le Indian subcontinent, and large parts of Europe et Africa.
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