While WhatsApp had a hard time coming to Dual SIM phones which kept the sales low of most of the Nokia Dual SIM Asha series phone including Asha 501, Nokia 108, 107, 301 and so on…the app was finally launched on the platform with Asha 1.1 update. I have tested this app for a while now on the Nokia 502 and it works just fine and has most of the features included which the app has on the smartphone platform.
How WhatsApp works on Dual SIM ?
This mystery opens up when you put two SIM in the phone and launch WhatsApp. It auto-detects both the SIM but it cannot auto detect the number. So after you have typed in the number you want to use with the application, it will give you an option to select the SIM that should be used with WhatsApp. The first SIM will be selected automatically if you don’t make a choice.
Video Demo of WhatsApp on Asha 502:
Watch on YouTube
The User-Interface:
Since the screen is small here, WhatsApp is built on multiple tabs here. Once you launch you will have Favorites, Groups and All in Tab. Similarly all the groups are available in tabbed format. So let’s say if you select a group and want to switch to another, you don’t have to go back instead, you can tap on the tabs and switch between groups.
On the main screen, there is a menu bar at the end which gives you access to settings via Options and lets you hide WhatsApp and let it run in the background. Even if you don’t press hide and hit the back key, it still hides and works behind the scene for you to pull latest messages and so on.
The unread notification from WhatsApp appear both on Lock Screen and on top of the screen. You can pull down and tap to direct go to that message. In case multiple messages are available, it will take you to the list of group.
Following options are available:
- Status
- Search
- New Group
- New Broadcast
- Settings
- and About.
What most you are interested in is settings. So here are details on settings:
- Profile Info: Change name and picture.
- Cellular While Roaming : Weather to use cellular data on roaming or instead wait for wi-fi to connect.
- Media : Auto download images but this is not Background Download. It just let you be lazy so you don’t do it one by one.
- Blocked Contacts : You can search and add contacts from address book or manually.
- Notifications : This is really well done. You can control notification on group level; each label, vibration, audio and set your own tone. There is a Message Preview settings available which you can use to block notifications to show up on lock screen.
- Delete my Account : You can delete your account from WhatsApp Completely. In case you just want to reset, long tap on the app and click on red close icon to reinstall it.
- Change phone number: This will migrate your account info, groups, settings to a new number.
Performance:
That said, the performance of WhatsApp is excellent. I did not find it slow from any point unless you have a flaky internet speed. The app launches quickly right from the notification center, can download images to gallery on demand, share images, audio, video using your camera, photo library or record it instantly. It works fine.