New changes and updates are already being made by Facebook after their recent purchase of the mobile messaging app WhatsApp, USA Today reported.
WhatsApp, the cross-platform mobile messaging app that allows folks to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS, announced on Monday that it will soon be offering a voice service.
And that may be just the beginning. The voice service will be available on Android and iPhones this spring and sometime later on Blackberry, Microsoft and Nokia phones, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
"We are going to introduce voice in WhatsApp in the second quarter of the year," he told the huge tech gathering. "I think we have the best voice product out there."
However, Facebook will supposedly make WhatsApp autonomous and operate it independently on its social network website.
According to USA Today, "It's already moving forward in a critical and competitive tech front. WhatsApp currently has a voice function but only in note form. This new service will be live."
In a deal widely regarded as one of the industry's biggest to date, Facebook shocked the social networking world when it acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion last Wednesday.
"Last week we added a new Facebook friend," Koum told the gathering. "I don't know if you guys heard."
"The blockbuster deal made serious waves with those in the telecommunications industry who gathered this week in the Catalan city, but also sparked concern among users that Facebook would introduce advertising to WhatsApp," USA Today reported.
The messaging service will have no designs which will be added for "marketing", Koum said.
"There are no planned changes," said Koum. "Our vision and mission are aligned. We both want to make the world more connected."
WhatsApp is being paid $12 billion in stock and $4 billion in cash by Facebook. Along with fellow founder Brian Acton and their 55 employee, Koum was also granted restricted stock worth $3 billion that will vest over four years after the deal closes.
Koum said that he didn't expect that WhatsApp's staff would grow in number very much, saying that "we want to operate as a startup."
Europe and other emerging countries were familiar with the popularity and use of WhatsApp. Until now, the app was relatively unknown in the U.S.
The Mountain View, California, startup already has almost twice as many users as the better known short messaging service, Twitter, USA Today reported.
WhatsApp has 465 million monthly users and 330 daily users, according to Koum, and costs users $1 a year after a first free year.
