Facebook has made headlines lately about purchasing an application that costs $19 billion. The app name is WhatsApp, a messaging service from Santa Clara, California, with 400 million monthly users. The app sends 20 billion messages daily, which is twice the size of the daily Messenger-carried messaging traffic of Facebook, according to The Telegraph.

Former employees of Yahoo! Jan Koum and Brian Acton created WhatsApp in 2009. Aside from sending of text messages, the app also allows users to send audio and video to subscribers. It requires strong Internet connection, but does not charge the user additional roaming fees. The app is available for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows and Nokia.

Connecting the World

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said WhatsApp complements the existing messaging and chat services on Facebook and provides new tools to the community. The mission is to make the world more connected and open by helping people share content with others. WhatsApp shall continue to develop a service which people from all over the world would love to use daily.

The app is fast, reliable and simple. Over 1 million people sign up daily and its on the way to connecting 1 billion people, as more and more rely on the app to communicate with their contacts.

Running Within Facebook

WhatsApp shall operate independently inside Facebook. There are no changes on the roadmap, while the next few years will be growing and connecting the entire world. Since Messenger and WhatsApp serve different important uses, Facebook will continue investing in them and make them great products for all.

With WhatsApp, adding a contact to a phone's address book requires Internet connection. Here's how:

1. Connect to the Internet.

2. Both sender and receiver must have installed WhatsApp.

3. In the Contacts section, users can encode their friend's phone number in their international format. Or they can also import contacts from their SIM card.

Note: To contact a friend, users need to go to the app, press the Menu button, then Settings, Contacts and Tell a Friend.

To chat:

1. Users need to make sure to have the phone number of their contact in their phone book.

2. The contact should also have the user's phone number in their address book.

3. Launch WhatsApp and wait for 15 seconds.

4. Tap the icon and then on the contact.

5. Start chatting.

Note: If a contact cannot be seen, go to Menu button and Refresh on the Select Contact page. The contact should also not be hidden.