Here’s good news for Reliance JioPhone users as soon they will be able to experience WhatsApp on the 4G-enabled feature phone. Reliance JioPhone runs on KaiOS which doesn’t offer support for WhatsApp. However, since last year it was being speculated that the company is in talks with WhatsApp and will try developing a seperate app for the JioPhone. It seems that this will soon become a reality.
According to WaBetaInfo (@wabetainfo), a Twitter account that tracks changes in WhatsApp’s beta builds, the company is working on developing an app for the KaiOS. This means that JioPhone users will soon be able to use WhatsApp on their device.
In an official blog post WaBetaInfo wrote, “Important references about the development of a new native KaiOS app had been found in the latest WhatsApp beta for Windows Phone 2.18.38, indicating the presence of a new platform that can be connected to WhatsApp servers.
”This can be bad new for the other telecom operators Airtel and Vodafone. As the only hurdle which refrained the customers to go for JioPhone was the availability of WhatsApp. Now, with the messenger on board there are chances that people will go for JioPhone as it offers more data at a lesser price and has both WhatsApp and Facebook.Presently, WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users every month and with the app coming to KaiOS it is expected to expand further as JioPhone has a user base of about 6 million users.
Last month, Reliance Jio announced the roll out of Facebook app for JioPhone users. The Facebook app on JioPhone supports push notifications, video, and links to external content. Moreover, the app is optimised to accommodate the cursor function on JioPhone.
To recall, the company announced the JioPhone in July last year and the device comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA TFT display and is powered by dual-core processor. Running KaiOS the 4G-enabled feature phone offers 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage, expandable up to 128GB.
The Jio Phone runs on 4G VoLTE network and comes with a host of pre-installed apps like JioTV, JioMusic and JioCinema. The device offers support for 24 Indian languages and voice commands.
On the connectivity front, the device offers 4G VoLTE, headphone jack, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC and Bluetooth.
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