Despite all the competition out there today, WhatsApp still manages to top the charts at being the most popular mobile messaging app and is tailed closely behind by Facebook Messenger. The big reason why WhatsApp has grown to become a strong force is mainly due to it's ad-free concept which does require a yearly fee of $0.99 and also it's cross platform compatibility. It's not the most liked messaging app ever made but it gets the job done for most people. But to the case of majority of users, WhatsApp has always waived the yearly subscription for active users.

Most popular global mobile messenger apps as of August 2015, based on number of monthly active users (in millions) credit: statista

But today, the Facebook owned WhatsApp is announcing that the annual $0.99 subscription to use WhatsApp will be abolished and that WhatsApp will not be running third party ads any time soon. As for how all of this is going to work out for WhatsApp in terms of sustaining profit, the comapny suggest that they will be testing out a couple of ways to earn revenue and just be ready to have a new experience with WhatsApp

Naturally, people might wonder how we plan to keep WhatsApp running without subscription fees and if today's announcement means we're introducing third-party ads. The answer is no. Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organizations that you want to hear from. 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.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: WHATSAPP via RECODE