Connecting people to the internet also means connecting them to the worst elements of humanity, romours and fake news being the one. Highly popular cross-platform messaging app, WhatsApp is now available on JioPhone and JioPhone 2 users. The messaging application has been designed to support 22 of India’s vast array of native languages.
JioPhone, which became the best-selling device in its category in just a year of its launch, has 25 million users. And each one of them on an average consumes 7 gigabytes of data a month, according to Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy and planning at Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.
Highlighting the key features, the instant messaging company said in an official post that the application retains the end-to-end encryption feature. Users will be able to enjoy familiar features of WhatsApp which includes fast and reliable messaging, and send multimedia content such as photos and videos. It also supports voice record and send feature.
Also read: Reliance JioPhone finally start supporting WhatsApp
Reliance JioPhones that offer a few smartphone apps but not full-fledged smartphone capabilities, alongside its affordable mobile data, have significantly reduced the cost and friction of being online in India. The messaging company aims to bring the world closer, however, this easy access to the online world comes newfound dangers, especially if not combined with news literacy and digital skills education that could help users spot false information before it sparks violence.
Lower income users interested in Jio’s feature phones may have even less access to the education needed to not believe everything they read on WhatsApp. What was once a smartphone problem is becoming an every phone problem.
WhatsApp is available in the JioPhone AppStore starting September 10, 2018 and will be rolled out on all JioPhones by September 20, 2018. People can download WhatsApp on both the JioPhone and the JioPhone 2 by visiting the AppStore and clicking on “download”.
Other than WhatsApp, social media app Facebook and Youtube will be rolled out as well on both JioPhone and JioPhone 2.
