It's also got an infinitely better reputation since it's arguably not social media, but just a solid instant messenger.
I was personally very concerned when they acquired it, but went from a begrudging user (it was the de facto standard in the country I was living in at the time) to an excited one (Facebook/Meta added end-to-end encryption, multi-device capability, device migration etc.)
* More UI space devoted to brands (the Updates tab
* Communities UX is, uh, suboptimal
* Brands / business accounts can message you with no opt out, you can block a chat after the fact but won’t stop them from messaging you from another account.
These made the news in WhatsApp’s favourite testbed market[1], but if you think it’s not coming to other markets…
Anyhow, tl;dr — WhatsApp’s no longer in the “put users first” phase, it’s in the “monetize” phase of Facebook Product Management.
As a person who paid for WhatsApp pre-Facebook, that does make me sad.
I was personally very concerned when they acquired it, but went from a begrudging user (it was the de facto standard in the country I was living in at the time) to an excited one (Facebook/Meta added end-to-end encryption, multi-device capability, device migration etc.)