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WhatsApp Bows Desktop App

There comes a time in every app’s life when it must pause, honor its ancestral roots, and, yes, launch a desktop version of itself.

Such is the case with WhatsApp, which is rolling out its desktop app, this week. 

Like WhatsApp Web, the new offering is merely an extension of users’ mobile apps, and mirrors conversations and messages across whatever platforms they want to use.

Backward as it may seem, adding a desktop app is simply part of the natural scaling process. People still own computers, after all. 

As such, WhatsApp parent Facebook eventually does a desktop version of all its properties, including Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.

That’s despite the fact that its mobile ad revenue now makes up more than 80% of total revenue, and mobile continues to grow much faster than desktop.

At launch, the new app is available for Windows 8+ and Mac OS 10.9+, and is synced with WhatsApp on users’ mobile devices.

Unsexy as it may seem, text messaging has established itself as the most popular pastime among mobile users. That’s why Facebook was happy to drop about $20 billion on WhatsApp in late 2014.

Since then, the app’s popularity has soared. In fact, it recently surpassed 1 billion monthly active users, and, as of February, was processing 42 billion messages a day, including 1.6 photos and 250 million videos.

Today, thanks to significant reach in more than 20 countries, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger stand alone as “global powerhouse" apps, according to eMarketer.

By 2018, the number of messaging app users worldwide will reach 2 billion, representing 80% of smartphone users, eMarketer expects.

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