WhatSim Dedicates Your Smartphone Solely To WhatsApp
What's up with WhatsApp these days? The popular, or sometimes unpopular, messaging service, now owned by Facebook, is back in the spotlight. First it is moving to shutdown third-party WhatsApp apps, for the sake of security and privacy of course, and then it revealed a so far Chrome-only web app. Though not exactly its doing, the announcement of this rather odd SIM card, called, what else, WhatSim, puts the service again on a pedestal, letting users worldwide chat to their hearts content.
Sure, you might argue that you can already do so with the WhatsApp app on mobile device and that may be true. But as an instant messaging service, WhatsApp is inherently tied to an Internet connection instead of your regular cellular network. For some, that mostly means WiFi, which isn't as ubiquitous or affordable as some would have you believe. And let's not even start talking about 3G or 4G rates.
That's where WhatSim comes in. Think of it as having an always on data connection dedicated solely to WhatsApp. Zeromobile, who is producing and selling these SIM cards, claims to have partnered with more than 400 mobile operators across 150 countries for this very purpose. And everything happens automatically as if by magic. WhatSim will connect to the provider in the area with the best coverage and signal. But if you lose that connection, it will automatically switch to another partner provider, all without you having to lift a finger.
An intriguing proposition definitely, except it is, after all, just for WhatsApp. If you're an addicted user, that's probably all you ever need. And you can get one WhatSim for just 10 EUR ($11.60), which will get you a year's worth of free unlimited WhatsApp use. After that, an annual subscription would cost 10 EUR as well. However, that goes only for text chats. If you want to send photos, videos, or even voice messages, you'll have to top up a $5 recharge, which will earn you points that you can spend for those purposes.
SOURCE: Zeromobile