Your life without Whatsapp


Your life without Whatsapp



Spaniards are the Europeans most adept at the application that was founded only eight years ago but without which it seems that it is difficult to be



  It seems that WhatsApp has been in the lives of its one billion users since always, but the reality is that until 2009 this application did not exist and until a couple of years later its use was not popularized massively, especially in Spain. Before that date, the way to communicate by mobile was with SMS at 15 cents each or through missed calls (the famous 'touches').


  Although its use is rather recent, on days like this Wednesday when the WhatsApp network suffered a worldwide fall , it is when the scope of this application is really known and, in many cases, the need for communication between millions of people. According to data from the CIS, 90.8% of mobile users have the 'app' installed and almost half of them (42.3%) say they use it continuously.

And among the millions of followers of the application, Spain is one of the most adept countries, especially if we take into account the European borders, where it is placed in first position according to the Eurobarometer. So common is its use that even the Fundéu (Spanish Urgent Foundation) has accepted the arrival of the verb 'wasapear' and the noun 'wasap' as a synonym to the messages that are sent and received from the 'app'.


Continuous use on a day-to-day basis

WhatsApp has become a social and technological phenomenon that has revolutionized the way people communicate. But its functions are not only based on communication between friends and family. WhatsApp applications come to touch the networks of work, children's school and are even the way for the media to serve as news to their readers, restaurants confirm reservations with their guests or emergency services or municipalities communicate the incidents or agenda of the day to the citizens.

It is not that WhatsApp was born out of nothing, but that it is an evolution of what was already with more practical functions. Technology does not stop evolving and since the invention of the telephone in 1871, communications have not stopped increasing. With the arrival of commercial mobiles in 1983 the SMS appeared and with that of the 'smartphones' in 1994 a string of applications to send messages to friends and family thanks to the internet. However, WhatsApp was the one that was made with the majority of users, and even today it greatly exceeds its biggest competitors: Facebook Messenger and Telegram.

The uses of the application go far beyond the messages between friends. Most people with children of school age will know what the group of 'parents' means, with its advantages and disadvantages in equal parts, similar to groups with bosses and co-workers that prevent disconnection from working hours as it was done some years.

But not only WhatsApp groups are responsible for many live glued to the mobile. Media, public administrations and even emergency services use the famous application to communicate to those who subscribe to it the latest news.

Ownership of Facebook since 2014

The company founded in 2009 by the Ukrainian Jan Koum in the United States, was purchased by Facebook in 2014 for 21,800 million dollars (about 19,900 million euros). At that time, the 'app' began to include improvements in its updates that not all users received well. From the blue 'tick' that confirms that the recipient has read the message to the video calls through the possibility of changing the states, one of the last changes that has caused less success.

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