WhatsApp vs. WhatsApp Plus – Pause Before Making the Switch

People have been talking a lot about WhatsApp Plus recently, so here’s a comparison for those who are considering switching from the original WhatsApp.

A New Version

WhatsApp Plus can be considered as a new version of the original WhatsApp available for Android devices, which was developed by Rafalete in the year 2012. The new version is a free one and it also called WhatsApp+ or WhatsApp Plus Holo, appearing with a blue icon. The user license continues to be the same in case of both the apps.

Is it Legal?

It is not yet clear whether it is legal to use WhatsApp Plus, but it’s clear that the new app surely performs very effectively. It is very simple to install the game on your mobile device. However, if you want to use WhatsApp Plus, you will firstly have to remove WhatsApp from your device.

Additions and Themes

If you are considering whether it is worth the switch, one of the most noteworthy features of the new WhatsApp Plus is that it comes with a completely new look, through the use of visual themes and additional styles. The themes are free for installation and can be directly installed from the application. The new version comes with more than 700 themes and they can be sorted on various levels, by means of name or version and even by date or by downloads. The previous version or the original WhatsApp did not have this theme feature, whereas WhatsApp Plus is able to make changes in the background of your chat screen. You can also change the bar colors and the colors of the text.

Addition of Emoticons

Another new feature that is not present in the original WhatsApp is that the new WhatsApp Plus comes with new emoticons. These include smileys that are available from Hangouts (Google). However, the emoticons that are sent can be seen only if the receivers have also installed WhatsApp Plus on their devices. If you are using WhatsApp Plus and you send these emoticons to other users who are currently using the original WhatsApp, they will only be able to view a question mark and not the smiley.

Hiding Status Feature

One of the most important features of WhatsApp, the original version, is that you can hide the time that you last accessed the app. This is useful for those who do not want to give away or betray their presence on WhatsApp. However, only those who pay for it can use the function. However, this feature is available for free on WhatsApp Plus. Recently, the free version for Android has also added this feature for free in its official version for WhatsApp, which is rather a blow for WhatsApp Plus.

Editing Files

WhatsApp Plus also comes with another new feature not present in the original version, in the form of a sharing option for editing files. The option allows you to make changes to the size limits of files that you send. This can be changed from 2 MB to 50 MB. You can also maintain the same size or the image quality, in case of photos and videos. WhatsApp Plus comes with six menus that can be used for editing the appearance and also for making changes to the settings. These include headers; colors; size of images; size of contact image; appearance of popup notifications; disabling animations; disabling voice notes; changing the size or the color of widgets; changing the color of the icon for launching and so on.

Verdict

After WhatsApp has been bought over by Facebook, it is very likely that there are going to be some major changes in WhatsApp, such as better security features and addition of voice calls and so on. These may not be seen in WhatsApp Plus, so it is recommended that users wait a bit before deciding to switch over to the new version of WhatsApp.