WhatsApp is wildly popular because it enables you to send and receive ad-free text messages for free from your mobile device. It’s so popular, that it boasts a user base of more than 450 million and was recently acquired by Facebook.
WhatsApp is a cross platform messaging app that works on all of the popular smartphones and is widely praised for being user-friendly. The creators of WhatsApp have now taken the app to yet another level with the release of a free new Shortcut for WhatsApp Plus widget for iOS. With the new widget, you can view select contacts from the Notification Center, so that you can directly access message thread associated with them. You can chat with friends from the Notification Center with just a swipe and a tap. WhatsApp may be slow to update their apps, but when they do, they make it worth your while.
WhatsApp for Android devices provides a home screen widget that displays your most recent messages. While the WhatsApp team has not provided a Whatsapp widget for iOS 8 devices, there is a third party developer that has stepped up to the plate with Shortcuts for WhatsApp Plus. The widget enables you to add shortcuts to your WhatsApp contact favorites in the iOS 8 Notification Center. That’s it in a nutshell.
After installing the app, you can then conveniently select the contacts from the app. While that’s a great feature, you can’t add the shortcuts to chat groups just yet, but we are hopeful that this feature will be added in a future update.
If you’re a regular WhatsApp user, you will find this Shortcuts widget to be extremely useful, especially if you’re usually using it with a specific group of people. This widget works great, but it doesn’t like other widgets, so if you’re super excited about this widget, then uninstall your other widgets before adding this one. If you’re on the fence about adding this widget, then think about whether or how much you will miss the widgets that you will have to give up. Can you live without dictionary.com if you have WhatsApp Plus? Only you can decide.
If you’re ready for WhatsApp Plus then download the app for free from the App Store. If you’re an avid WhatsApp user, you can also get this jailbreak tweak so that you will receive notification whenever a friend comes online. While you can download the widget for free, the free version allows you to add only three contacts. If you like it and you want to add more contacts, you’ll need to pay $0.99 for the upgraded version. It’s a great deal either way, so enjoy!