WhatsApp adds capability to share any file type

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WhatsApp
You’ll need a new iPhone if you can’t update to iOS 8 or later.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Everyone’s using WhatsApp these days, which makes it an ideal platform for quickly sharing files with friends and colleagues. And it just got even better at doing that, because you can now use WhatsApp to share any file type.

With a user base of over 1 billion, WhatsApp is by far the world’s most popular messaging platform. It began its journey on the iPhone in 2009, and quickly became a must-have app as it added supported for new platforms while keeping things simple.

WhatsApp has offered file sharing for a long time, but only certain formats were supported — specifically .csv, .doc, .docx, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .txt, .xls, .xlsx, and similar. You could also use it to share most photo and video formats.

However, thanks to its latest update for Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile, WhatsApp can now be used to share any file format. But there is a catch: The maximum file size is still 128MB on iOS, and 100MB on Android and Windows Mobile.

You will also be able to share any file type from your desktop, but the size limit there is a measly 64MB.

This update isn’t coming via the App Store; WhatsApp will activate it in the background. “You may receive the activation at any time, but note that it’s really slow, because WhatsApp is experimenting this feature for some users only, at the moment,” reports WABetaInfo.

Don’t worry if it’s not working for you just yet, then — it will arrive soon.

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