WhatsApp News Update: No More Subscription Fee; Third Party Ads Removed As Well!

The newest update for WhatsApp has arrived and news report sites have been publishing numerous articles about it.

The messaging app is now completely free, users will no longer be asked to pay a $1 annual subscription fee.

WhatsApp founder Jan Koum said on Monday that their company was going to drop the annual subscription fee as an effort to remove the barriers faced by some users in availing their services.

Addressing the DLD Conference in Munich, he said having a fee doesn't work well.

"It really doesn't work that well, while a buck a year might not sound like much, access to credit cards is not ubiquitous," he said, as cited by ReCode. "We just don't want people to think at some point their communication to the world will be cut off."

So far, WhatsApp has been free for the first year and 99 cents of subscription fee for the next year onwards. And with the news update, the company is going to stop charging and it might take a few weeks for this announcement to get implemented.

Also, as a new business model, the company is exploring ways to use their service to connect to individuals without spams and unwanted advertising.

According to the company's blog post, WhatsApp is not going to introduce third-party ads. They are about to test tools that will allow users to communicate with businesses and organizations regarding anything that they might want to hear from.

It includes communicating with your bank about a recent fraudulent transaction or with an airline regarding a delayed flight. Such services which were earlier available via SMSes or phone calls are about to be available on WhatsApp, that too without any third-party ads or spam.

UsaToday has reported that the new developments could mean that it would be more convenient for a lot of people, and that it would certainly raise the bar higher for competing apps.

This phenomenon is similar to that of Facebook Messenger, offering users to chat with businesses.

During the first half of 2014, the company generated $15 million from subscription fees. And the WhatsApp news update is that the subscription fee is exempted and that after Facebook's acquisition of the messaging app, it had 450 million users and 900 million by September.