That puts them in the same position with the owners of Android, where this kind of subscription was active for a while. It is important to note that the app will be free for the first year, and all current customers who have purchased the app, it will be available forever without additional annuall fees. Among other news, WhatsApp now supports creating backup copies of all messages via iCloud.

WhatsApp Messenger currently has over 250 million users across all platforms, which is for example more than Twitter has.

[Ed - In reality it is not surprising that WhatsApp is looking for a revenue stream now. We would not be surprised if this 99 cents became monthly very soon. Maintaining this type of infrastrcuture is not cheap and they are going to want to get more from it than they are now...]

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