Popular cross-platform instant messaging application WhatsApp is now available for download from the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, Redmond Pie has learned.
If you and your friends own a smartphone, chances are you’ve already heard of WhatsApp. It is a popular messaging application whose strongest feature is how (unlike iMessages or BBM) it is available on a wide variety of platforms including iOS, Blackberry OS, Android and Symbian. Starting today, it will be available for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango too!
From the official WhatsApp website:
WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! Because WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.
The feature set is the same as WhatsApp on other platforms, allowing users to group chat, push notifications support, send and receive free texts and media messages (photos, video and audio can be transferred), “instant contacts” which picks up contacts from your phone’s address book and being able to send/receive offline messages.
WhatsApp, however, is only available for smartphones so any device which does not have its own phone number (like iPod touch, Android-based portable music players) are not compatible with WhatsApp unless you’re jailbroken. There are workarounds for this, as we written guides on how to install WhatsApp on iPod touch and iPad (jailbreak tweak).
We published an article a few days ago where we talked about WhatsApp coming to Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, but it appears that the developers of WhatsApp decided not to wait for the next version of WP7, as the app has been released today on Windows Phone 7’s marketplace.
If you’re interested, the app can be downloaded from the link embedded below. We’ve heard from multiple folks that they are having issues downloading the app, but we expect it to being working very soon.
Download WhatsApp for Windows Phone 7 [Zune Marketplace Link]
Be sure to check out our Windows Phone 7 apps gallery to explore more apps for your Windows Phone 7 smartphone.
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