Is WhatsApp a kind of social network? If you and another person are having a discussion over whether or not WhatsApp is a social networking platform, this article may help. It’s also possible that you’re just interested in the app’s classification.
There’s a lot of debate over whether or not WhatsApp can be classified as “Social Media”. Apps may be classified in a variety of ways. Games may be classified in two ways: “Adventure” or “Action,” for example. This is based on the app’s primary goal, as well as the field or fields to which it pertains.
When utilized in this way, WhatsApp is more than just a chat app. In this post, we’ll examine the characteristics of WhatsApp to see whether it qualifies as a social networking platform.
Table of Contents
What Is WhatsApp?
Brian Acton and Jan Koum created the communications program WhatsApp (former employees of Yahoo). In August of 2009, it was released on the App Store, and in October of 2010, it was made available on Google Play.
WhatsApp reached 200 million active users in February 2013 and was valued at $1.5 billion by Sequoia in July after concluding a Series B financing. In one year’s time, Facebook paid $19B for WhatsApp (its largest acquisition to date). WhatsApp is now used by more than 2 billion people across the globe to communicate through text messages and media.
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How Can I Use WhatsApp For Business?
It’s easy for small businesses to organize their products, communicate with customers, and automate messages with the new WhatsApp Business app “designed with the small business owner in mind.” The app also offers customer support services so that businesses can communicate with customers who are already using WhatsApp to communicate. While Skype is a terrific way to stay in contact with coworkers, WhatsApp is an excellent way to stay in touch with consumers as well. It is reasonable to argue that Skype and WhatsApp are more like messaging services with social media characteristics, whereas Facebook and Snapchat are more often referred to as “social media” by its users.
We hope these articles have helped you understand the distinctions between these platforms and how they might be utilized for business. To wrap out this series, we’ll take a look at what it takes to be a “social media pro” in the last piece, “What Does It Mean to Have ‘Social Media Experience’ These Days?”
Is WhatsApp The Best Social Media?
As of March 2020, WhatsApp has over 2 billion monthly active users. It is now the third most popular social network in the world. Why WhatsApp is among the top social media apps:
- There will be no charges for this service: Send and receive free text messages and phone calls.
- Secure texting using end-to-end encryption.
- It’s easy to share photographs and videos using this app.
- There are a variety of ways to participate in group chats, such as joining or creating a new group.
- Your contacts’ WhatsApp numbers will automatically be added to your contact list.
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Key Reasons WhatsApp Is A Social Media Platform
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WhatsApp Users Can Reveal Their Identity
As much as privacy on WhatsApp has become a hot-button issue, the capacity to expose one’s identity is at the core of social media. Put another way, it’s important that people can communicate information about themselves with others.
- Name
- Gender
- Age
- Education
- Occupation
- Hobbies
Having a strong sense of who you are as a person is a vital part of your identity. In contrast to Facebook, which allows users to share their whole family tree, WhatsApp is a little more restrained. Using the app, users may share their profile image, name, and current status with their friends. A cell phone number is used to establish a connection, therefore that’s also not exactly private. However, it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
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WhatsApp Is Built For Conversations
Conversations are unquestionably a feature that sets WhatsApp apart from the rest of the pack. With texting and phoning, users may conduct long-distance private chats. It’s also possible for them to have public discussions with other people.
WhatsApp, unlike other social media sites, does not charge for text or phone calls and does not include in-app adverts. However, commercialization is fully hidden from users on WhatsApp, and this poses privacy concerns.
One of the most important facets of “being sociable” is exchanging ideas via written or spoken communication. This is where WhatsApp really shines. Above and above what’s offered by the competitors, in other words.
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Sharing Is Easy On WhatsApp
We used to transmit files over email back in the day, didn’t we? I can’t say the same for myself. WhatsApp obliterates the need for old-fashioned communication methods. It’s so much simpler to share a picture, video, or a link to a website with other people thanks to this tool. On WhatsApp, sharing material is more efficient than on other social networks:
- With WhatsApp, you can choose who you want to share material with.
- Sharing material isn’t rewarded with a flood of likes, but it usually leads to a more in-depth dialogue (even in group chats)
- It is simpler to send huge files on WhatsApp because of the compression of photographs and videos.
- In a voice conversation, you may use text to exchange media with the person you’re talking to.
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WhatsApp Publicly Shows User Presence
Showing who is online has everything to do with user availability or presence. WhatsApp does this all the time: you can always tell when a person was last online. Unless, of course, the last observed online status of that individual has been deliberately suppressed for reasons of privacy.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, has evolved beyond this point. The ‘WhatsApp Status’ has jumped on the Instagram tales and Twitter fleets bandwagon. It’s now easier than ever for people to tell their whole network what they’ve been up to.
Because they only last for a day at a time, these statuses are only designed to be used on a short basis. You don’t have to go into your chat screen and see when someone was last online, which is possible to conceal even on WhatsApp Web. Presence prompts subsequent conversation.”
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WhatsApp Puts Social Relationships First
When two individuals communicate only through one-on-one chat, the intimacy is undeniable. It makes it simple to keep in touch with friends and family, or perhaps develop new ones. In this sense, social media fulfills the original intent of its inception.
Message services, in contrast to conventional platforms, encourage active interaction rather than passive consumption of content. You need to interact with others if you want to keep up to date. Rather than relying on pointless systems like “likes,” “hearts,” and the like, social media thrives on human interaction. It’s not precisely what most people consider “social media,” yet it’s hard to imagine anything more sociable.
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