*Update* KaiOS officially getting Whatsapp

A new trend in mobile phone industry was launched last year, and if you ask me it didn’t go well. Smartphone users are getting tired of too many functionalities that their phones are offering, and are wishing to swap all of it for more battery juice and some basic phone usage, like listening to music and make phone calls. Even Nokia Mobile suggested for Christmas in 2017 that we should take a rest from beloved Nokia smartphones, and maybe just use feature phones to get closer to our beloved ones.
Feature phones should be the perfect haven for that kind of people, but I think that many of us just can’t go without several useful apps, like Whatsapp or Youtube. In my humble opinion, if there was a good quality feature phone that can run Whatsapp, I would try to make it my primary phone.

Some potentially good news is coming from India. Jio has just presented a new feature phone running KaiOS that can also run Whatsapp, YouTube, and Facebook. The excellent thing about this news is that 8110 4G is also running KaiOS and it could also get the support for Whatsapp. The not so great thing about this news is the fact that HMD Global is late in bringing the same option to their feature phone. Jio can be quick because it is still not conquering the world, and HMD needs to do a bit more paperwork to push Whatsapp on their feature phones globally.
If HMD is going in the same direction as Jio, maybe it is time to revive a Nokia QWERTY phone that will run KaiOS. Nokia phones running s40 platform supported Whatsapp and internet version of Facebook, so should new Nokia feature phones.

 

*Update* Juho Sarvikas tweeted about this, and it seems that Whatsapp is coming to the banana phone.