If you enjoy getting more from WhatsApp than just the chats, videos, audio clips and pictures then you will probably celebrate the latest improvement to the instant messaging platform. Users of WhatsApp for Android and iOS can now send documents.
Users of WhatsApp for Android and iOS can now send documents. This currently applies to the latest version of the app available for both and Android. It’s a feature that most people have been anticipating and like other improvements to WhatsApp, it had been speculated on for months.
It also ties in with WhatsApp’s recent announcement that it will stop supporting its app on some mobile operating systems – a move that is meant to ensure that it can continue to roll out a host of new features.
How it works plus its Ts and Cs
Like the other options for attachment, a user taps on the paperclip attachments icon where as usual a six-option grid appears. The WhatsApp Documents option is the first on that lineup.
Attaching a document is as easy as attaching any other medium really. Just tap on the option, and select the document on your phone that you want to send to a contact or share with a group.
However, there are some rules to this document sharing. Firstly, it’s only for PDF files, something that shouldn’t really be an issue for now since this is only the early version of this feature.
Then there’s the compatibility issue. Both the sender and receiver need to have compliant versions of WhatsApp, something that also affects the option of sharing documents with a group.
It’s hardly a train smash, as we mentioned already, this feature is on versions that are easily available from the respective app stores.
Killing email and every other reason why is this is a big deal
Understandably there is a segment of WhatsApp users with a plethora of alternatives for communication (ie they have access to the internet on different devices and in different environments) who view WhatsApp as just another tool for chat and multimedia exchange.
However, the service has become a strong representation of internet access in a country like Zimbabwe. With the high cost of broadband and limited disposable incomes, any alternative that makes internet access affordable is placed on a pedestal of sorts.
It’s these same conditions that can be used to explain the WhatsApp bundles that were introduced by Zimbabwean mobile operators. needless to say, it’s these bundles, and every other reason behind the WhatsApp phenomenon that makes features like WhatsApp Documents a big deal.
People can now share content in another format through WhatsApp, enhancing the IM platform’s value proposition and creating another reason to use a Facebook service as an internet alternative.
In some crude way, this also brings WhatsApp closer to the email service value proposition – in fact, it could even outpace it, especially in Zimbabwe where being on WhatsApp is slowly becoming a way to access the internet.
The world is all about instant access to data and information, something that services like email aren’t necessarily geared for when stacked up against IM platforms that are all about real-time exchange. While email still has its own strengths, features like WhatsApp Documents are constantly stripping away those points of difference.
Update – In an earlier version of this article, we had incorrectly stated that the file limit for WhatsApp Documents is set at 15 MB. The actual file size limit is 100 MB.
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20 comments
they took their sweet time on that one, needed that support long back, might not need to switch back to it . when i had tried it and it failed when it was needed previously.
Actually from their FAQ section on their website, maximum file size is 100MB and not your indicated 15MB
https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/android/28000021
@BeatNyama thank you for pointing that out. We have since corrected that mistake.
Cool function, it will be a while though before they will be able to tap into the business world fully. Bravo for the development…
Hope they will quickly advance to other files like apk files and excel docz
its been more than a decade with you bloggers sensationlising the death of email. It aint happening any time soon sorry to burst your bubble.
with a whopping 100MB, I cam foresee the death of email. watch this space…Companies will soon ask prospective employees to send their CVs through whatsapp!
Well done Whatsapp!
However, Whatsapp calling in Zim was a miss!
Tendai, Whatsapp calling does not work properly with Whatsapp bundles, it works very well with normal data bundles
Facebook couldn’t kill email, whatsapp won’t either!
Facebook didn’t necessarily kill email maybe because you need email in order to be on Facebook, where as that is not the case with WhatsApp.
the english in the top image hahahahahahaha
“By Forth”, he must have been referring to 4th (fourth) Street. Kkkk
258 842915646
Whatsapp won’t kill email because they are different by nature. The commonality between email and Whatsapp is that they are both forms of digital communication.
1.) Emails strength is that it maintains records of communication, which Whatsapp does not do. With Whatsapp, the only copy exists (on your device) once downloaded. Email maintains a copy on the server for most user configurations.
2.) Emails can be shared by a group e.g, support@techzim.co.zw, either via many people logging into one account or one address splitting spreading the email to other accounts (aliases). With Whatsapp this is impossible (group messaging is way different from this).
3.) Emails are geared towards formal or business like communications. I can send a client an email in the middle of the night, but an instant message wouldn’t be so appreciated. Even the language used differs, rarely du u find emails typd in chld spk.
4.) Whatsapp is more casual and less invasive, thus you can message strangers simply because you have their contact number. You can’t email a person and just say “Hey” or “Who is this?”, simply because you have their email in your contact list.
5.) Attention spans when using Whatsapp are shorter than when using email. Including document messaging is more likely to result in lots of received but unread documents.
Email is here to stay….
“….Killing email and every other reason why is this is a big deal…”
The statement is totally wrong unless we get a further explanation.
Businesses depend on emails, even MS did not try to kill emails when they bought skype.
It can be used for collaboration but that doesnt mean replacing formal business established communication.
Can’t understand why you Techzim people don’t want to promote apps developed by local Zimbabweans. It’s always WhatsApp or Econet.For example, TanaMe, an app developed by locals has had file sharing, video calling etc long before WhatsApp was even talking abt these features. Come on guys give local apps their due exposure
Taname was reviewed here http://www.techzim.co.zw/2013/08/a-new-player-on-the-zimbabwean-voip-app-market/ “long before” today.
Weddingapp located on http://www.weddingapp.tk is also worth it
i found a loop hole in the whatsapp document option which allows you to send any file.
1.You go to an apk file file in your phones file manager for example
2.You rename the file from .apk to .pdf
3.Go to whatsapp and go to send document you will see the renamed file and send 🙂