WhatsApp Increases its Group Member Limit: Brace Yourself for Spam

Say hello to the world of social media and inanity that only seems to be increasing with every passing day. Amidst millions of pointless comments and cat-pictures that are exchanged every day, here is some news to make you shudder at the prospect of more spam. WhatsApp has increased the number of members that can be part of a group from 100 to 256.

The move has perhaps been made to make users stick to the platform, especially in the face of competition its facing from other companies like Hike, Viber and KakaoTalk, to name a few. The company is clearly trying to hard to keep up its status of being the world’s most popular messaging app. WhatsApp confirmed 1 billion users on the platform with 42 billion messages being exchanged every day.

Since Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp, it is only likely that the platform would be entering into different methods of generating revenue. Now that the platform is all set to be cost-free minus any charge at all, the move to increase members in a group could be aimed at creating an income from those using WhatsApp as a means to publicise themselves. From personal business to brokers to marketing firms, everyone seems to be using this platform to publicise themselves. And it is precisely this section of WhatsApp users the increased group limit seems to be directed at.

An average WhatsApp user is not likely to be effected by the update at all. Also, the update could have been announced on a trial basis as well. Even if Facebook is tinkering with the platform to test different ways of increasing its profits, a random figure like 256 (why not 250 or 300?) still seems an odd way to start. Let’s see what the company has in mind and what all it leads to.