In just few years, WhatsApp has grown into one of the most used messaging apps available. With a user base of over 1.3 billion, and growing; WhatsApp shows no sign of slowing down.

At its heart, WhatsApp is simply a free to use cross-platform instant messaging service. However, to its many users the app is much more than just a means of keeping in touch. The WhatsApp phenomenon has spread throughout the social media digital world, offering the end user a safe and secure platform in which to communicate. There are examples of people using WhatsApp to help inform police and security services of crime as it happens, enabling better lines of communication with the public and law enforcement as well as gathering of evidence against a perpetrator. People have used WhatsApp to record geological events such as erupting volcanoes, earthquakes,tornadoes and other such catastrophes.

Thanks to WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption and high standards of security, users can talk, send attachments, images and videos without fear of being watched or monitored by government agencies and the like. Users in countries where external communications are heavily restricted have managed to send word to the outside world of what's going on and helped us all become aware of foreignpolitics.

Recently, the company behind WhatsApp announced that a business version will be made available, enabling companies to provide customer services and help to users on a far larger scale than previously thought.

So WhatsApp really is much more than a simple messaging app. Its beauty lies in the fact that it can be used by just two people talking to each other or by thousands of people around the world trying to make everyone's lives better. Whoever you are, and wherever you are, using WhatsApp can help you connect and become a part of something bigger.