(Image source from: Whats App no longer charges subscription fees})

WhatsApp said that it will not charge $1 per year subscription fee and would go completely free for its users across the world. Popular messaging app service claims to have over a billion users across the globe. No third-party ads would also be introduced by for monetisation.

On its official blog, WhatsApp said, “Nearly a billion people around the world today rely on WhatsApp to stay in touch with their friends and family...WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees,”

It said that while some users were asked to pay a fee for using WatsApp, “as we’ve grown, we’ve found that this approach hasn’t worked well”.

Interestingly, users in India were not charged by WhatsApp for using the service. India is one of the biggest markets for the service.

In 2014, the company was taken over by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014. The  company said it was going to experiment with new models to stay ad-free.

“...over the next several weeks, we’ll remove fees from the different versions of our app and WhatsApp will no longer charge you for our service,” the firm said.

The company plans to test tools allowing users to leverage the platform for communication between businesses as well as organizations.

“That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today - through text messages and phone calls - so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on WhatsApp, while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and spam,” the firm added.

-Sumana