Instant mobile messaging app WhatsApp has rolled out new camera features, allowing users to customize and enhance the pictures and videos they share with friends and family around the world.
With new features, WhatsApp users can now write or draw on their pictures and videos and also add emojis to express themselves. For users to access these new features, they’ll need to tap on new editing tools and then start drawing whatever they want. They can also add their favorite emoji by tapping on the smiley icon on top. Emojis can be added on the top of new photographs or videos as well as on photos and videos already stored on your phone.
A convenient zooming feature has also been added for recording videos. While recording the video in WhatsApp, users can zoom in and out by just sliding their fingers up and down. By double tapping on screen, users can quickly switch between front and rear facing camera.
WhatsApp camera will now also support the front-facing flash, which means users can take a good quality selfie even in low light. The selfie flash feature will work by brightening up the phone screen, thus improving the quality of the photo.
“Now, when you capture a new photo or video or share one which is already on your phone, you will automatically see the new editing tools,” WhatsApp said in a post.
The new camera features will be available on Android phones starting Oct 4 and will soon be rolled out on Apple iPhones.
WhatsApp Messenger is a free, social media app for smartphones, which allows users to send text messages, make voice and video calls, and send images, videos, documents, PDF files, audio files, etc., with other users. WhatsApp Inc., is based in Mountain View, California, and was acquired by Facebook in February 2014.
WhatsApp had a user base of over one billion by Feb 2016, and was the most popular messaging app at the time. WhatsApp, was incorporated in 2009 by Jan Koum – a former employee of Yahoo! He named “WhatsApp” to sound like “what’s up”. WhatsApp 2.0 was rolled out with a messaging component in mid-June 2009. Brian Acton officially joined WhatsApp Inc., in November 2009. After months of testing the beta version, the app was eventually launched in November 2009 on the App Store for the iPhone. In December 2009, developers added the ability to send photos to WhatsApp for the iPhone. By early 2011, WhatsApp had become one of the top 20 apps in Apple’s U.S. App Store. In next two years, WhatsApp had about 200 million active users and was valued at $1.5 billion.
In December 2013, WhatsApp revealed that its active monthly users had grown to 400 million. The number further increased to 500 million monthly active users by April, 2014, which were sending 10 billion messages, 700 million photos and 100 million videos daily.
In February, 2014, Facebook announced that was acquiring WhatsApp for US$19 billion. Facebook paid $4 billion in cash and $12 billion in Facebook shares. About $3 billion in restricted stock units were granted to WhatsApp’s founders Koum and Acton. Zuckerberg also revealed later that this acquisition was closely related to the Facebook’s vision of Internet.org.
By August 2014, WhatsApp had become the most popular messaging app globally, with more than 600 million active users. By September 2015, the user base of WhatsApp had grown to 900 million, and by February 2016 it had grown to one billion.
