WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging app has announced that it will drop its Annual Subscription fee to go completely free for its users across the world. Facebook’s acquisition WhatsApp has announced this free subscription plan on Monday. This latest move will be soon implemented within the next few weeks. It has officially announced that it will get rid of its US $1 (approximately Rs. 68) annual subscription fee this year.

Till now, WhatsApp asked some of its users to pay an annual fee for using the app after the first year of use – though as many of us have experienced, most users were not asked to pay after a year. Instead of asking for annual payment, they were given extensions each year. However, the company believes that the approach of annual subscription fee hasn’t worked successfully.

“Nearly a billion people around the world today rely on WhatsApp to stay in touch with their friends and family…WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees,” WhatsApp said on its official blog.

WhatsApp Ditches Annual Subscription Fee to go FREE

Interestingly, WhatsApp did not charge users for using the service in India, which is one of the biggest markets for the service. Now, it is planning to ditch its annual subscription fee and to go completely Free for all its users across the world. The company, which was acquired by Facebook for US $19 billion earlier in 2014, said it was going to experiment with new models to stay ad-free. “…over the next several weeks, we’ll remove fees from the different versions of our app and WhatsApp will no longer charge you for our service,” it said. One of the main objectives behind the move is reaching out to many WhatsApp users without a debit or credit card across countries.

“Many WhatsApp users don’t have a debit or credit card number and they worried they’d lose access to their friends and family after their first year. So over the next several weeks, we’ll remove fees from the different versions of our app and WhatsApp will no longer charge you for our service”, says the company in an official blog post.

The company also made an announcement that it will no more introduce any third-party ads for monetization. Where then will WhatsApp’s revenue come from? Without explicitly describing the revenue model, WhatsApp said it would test tools starting from 2016 which could replace text messages and phone calls mode of communication between people and businesses and organisations.

“We will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organisations that you want to hear from.”

Assuring zero third-party advertisements and spam, WhatsApp said, “That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today – through text messages and phone calls so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on WhatsApp while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and spam.”

For now, the instant messaging service has not completely revealed the details regarding the tools it will be testing for bringing businesses and organisation closer to its users but we can foresee to hear more on this news very soon.