WhatsApp, snaps fee on the iPhone, but only for new customers - The Messenger

ROME – Ends also for owners of the iPhone was WhatsApp for free. A true technological nightmare become (after many false alarms) finally a reality.

Loyalty bonus. But for those who are already subscribed do not worry: Melafonino users who downloaded the popular application to send free sms using the internet connection, continue to use the service free for life. Only for those that download from this day forward we will apply the payment model already in place for users of other platforms, from Android to BlackBerry.

Posts low cost. Do the math: the application is downloaded and used free for 12 months, then clicks an annual subscription of 99 cents (about 0.80 euro), with the possibility of extending it to three and five years. For customers of the bitten apple, which so far used the app by paying a one-time only when unloaded, the novelty is not a cold shower. In late March, the same number as one of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, had anticipated him in an interview.

Mass Exodus. Although the figure contained in the annual fee, there is anyway, who says no to the change of pace and is ready to migrate to other services in order not to fall back on sms. Means more and more falling. The Italian Communications Authority between January and March this year, in fact, found in our country the first decline in the absolute number of text messages exchanged. Data in line with the worldwide trend whereby overtaking chat on sms happened last year (with 19 billion chat messages exchanged on the day against 17.6 sms, data Informa), inducing recently the European Commissioner for the telecommunications, Neelie Kroes, the phone companies to warn that “the cow of the proceeds is dying.” The amount of messaging programs is therefore expected to increase. The users themselves will often use more than one smartphone.

Goodbye sms. The main, Apple’s iMessage, WhatsApp and BlackBerry Messenger together have 2.5 billion users. WathsApp with a tweet on 13 June announced 27 billion messages exchanged every day. But the app refuge for those who decide not to take more of the latter are different. In addition to the already known Viber Messenger and Facebook, there is also ChatON, default on Samsung smartphone. Google has made available its system of video-chat Hangouts on the platforms Android, iOS and Chrome, while BlackBerry Messenger is coming, free, also for Android phones and Apple. Finally, among the applications on the rise – at the moment is the most downloaded among those free on the App Store – there WeChat who has just launched an aggressive global advertising campaign on TV, testimonial soccer player Lionel Messi.