Turning a smartphone into a pocket computer is something that has great advantages in many aspects. It remains a console, a working tool, an agenda and, above all, a great communication tool. The phone function may have remained in the background, but thanks to social networks and most importantly applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram, we can be close to those who are far away.

These are completely free apps (we give away our data, but that’s another topic) and having to pay to use them may seem like a joke. But there was a time when WhatsApp was a paid application. Or rather, he tried to do so in some cases.

The revolution has come. A lot has changed since 2009. We called, sent SMS, talked on Messenger, even Tuenti was there. There were some mobile phones that had Messenger, but ultimately the most common were SMS and, if you were lucky, the BlackBerry Messenger service, which was free if you had a branded mobile phone.

But everything was about to change. That year, WhatsApp Inc. Launched WhatsApp. It first came to iOS, and it did so with something that seems very strange today: the paywall. Especially the 79 cents you have to pay no matter what to use the app. It came to Android a year later with a different offer: Free for a year, pay later. Or not.

A little more freedom please. This is where the movie starts to get weird because if a service or product is paid for, of course we have to pay to benefit from it, right? What happened with WhatsApp was that it looked more like a voluntary payment. Not on iOS you had to pay there (though there were users who could download it for free), but on Android things changed.

When you applied for a year, WhatsApp sent a notification saying that the free period has ended and you should consider paying. Price? 89 cents wasn’t much, but even less on Android if users weren’t used to paying with their mobile phones. However, WhatsApp gave us the option to extend this payment.

A somewhat unsuccessful subscription. So, you can choose to pay, but even if you decide not to pay, you can use the application completely free. This sounds strange, and it really is. This may be what has caused the app to become extremely popular in regions like Europe and have completely replaced SMS. The chaos didn’t end there. The aforementioned entry price for iOS’s lifetime subscription was 78 cents, but in 2013 it was decided to charge new users on this system an annual fee of 89 cents.

WhatsApp’s business was not very clear in those years, and some time ago you told us about all kinds of situations: paying users and non-paying users. It’s clear that all of this is happening because WhatsApp allows this; because if they wanted all users to pay at some point, they would force it.

And Facebook came. In the end, everything was solved very simply, and the application became completely free in 2016, some time after Facebook acquired WhatsApp.

I must say that I have always been able to use WhatsApp for free. I extended the payment at every opportunity WhatsApp gave me and I did not have to spend a single penny on Android. But I support my colleague Iván’s decision and share that if an app gives you a good service, paying to reward creators is a good decision.

To use an analogy, this is what happens with video games on fixed-price platforms like Game Pass: You can play it on Game Pass, but if you really like it, it doesn’t hurt to buy it. Not only will you own it, but you will also show that support to the developer. Now we want to read your comments: Did you pay to use the application or did you use it even if it was not mandatory?

Image | Iván Linares, Alex Alcolea

in Xataka | What happened to Line, the Japanese application that is trying to compete with WhatsApp in its global dominance?