WhatsApp turns 12, more than 1 billion calls are being made every day

WhatsApp announced on Thursday that the instant messaging platform has completed 12 years. Announcing its 12th anniversary, the Facebook-owned company revealed that it handles more than 1 billion calls per day. WhatsApp was launched in February 2009 and was originally designed to share status among its users. However, with time it was further developed and became a full messaging platform. Finally the company also added the feature of voice and video calling in it. The company did not stop here and also started WhatsApp Payments to provide payment service to app users. However, since the beginning of the year, the company is also facing criticism regarding the new privacy policy.

One posted on Thursday Tweet Through WhatsApp announced completion of 12 years. The tweet talked about some previously announced figures, which said more than two billion (2 billion) monthly active users and 100 billion (10 billion) messages. However, it is also reported that the app, known for its instant messaging experience, handles more than 1 billion daily calls.

WhatsApp added voice calling support to its app in February 2015 and started offering video calling in November 2016. The company also added group voice and video calling support in August 2018. Apart from calling, WhatsApp users were also given the option to share stickers and GIFs and the latest feature added to the app is WhatsApp Payments, which is for money transactions.

Launched in 2009 by former Yahoo employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in February 2014. However, after this, questions start being raised on the privacy of WhatsApp. Many experts say that the company shares user data with Facebook and its subsidiaries.

Recently the debate regarding users’ privacy on WhatsApp increased further, when the company talked about implementing its new privacy policy. However, the company also clarified that the new policy is only for business accounts and it will not affect the accounts of common users. Under pressure, instead of implementing this policy in February, the company delayed it till May 15.