How to use WhatsApp without internet?

It’s a distinctly modern problem: you want to talk on WhatsApp but you can’t get an internet connection. If you want to know how to use WhatsApp without internet access, we have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that most of the fixes you’ll already have read about don’t work. The good news? We know one that does.

SOURCE - ANDROID PIT

The fact the app isn’t in Google Play should set another bell going, and the facts that it uses the WhatsApp name without having any connection to WhatsApp the company (its developers are 'Awesome Developers', not WhatsApp Inc) and that it doesn’t use WhatsApp usernames or passwords ("WhatsApp Bluetooth Messenger works with your Bluetooth name," as one bit of blurb put it) should set off more bongs than a drunk burglar bumbling around Snoop Dogg’s house in the dark.

After foisting the All-in-one Downloader and loads of misleading adverts on us, WhatsApp Bluetooth Messenger proved to be a very simplistic bare-bones chat program for chatting over short distances via Bluetooth. And that’s it. We tried to pair it with an iPhone running WhatsApp and we were shocked – shocked! – to discover that it didn’t work.

But we weren’t too upset, because if you want to get a message to somebody who’s within Bluetooth range you can always get their attention by making sounds with your mouth, writing them a note, or faking your own death in a manner so outrageous, so loud and so convincing that they’ll come rushing over to give you CPR. Those options don’t require the internet either, and they also won’t blast you with annoying ads.

How to use WhatsApp without internet: using WhatsApp via SMS

You can’t use WhatsApp via SMS either. The whole point of WhatsApp is that it uses your internet connection instead of phone networks’ often-expensive SMS systems, so WhatsApp-ing over SMS would be a strange thing for the firm to offer. It’d be a bit like Uber offering to call a yellow cab, or Airbnb recommending a hotel.

How to use WhatsApp without internet: using ChatSIM

Technically, using ChatSIM does use the internet – but it uses somebody else’s internet, so that doesn’t really count. It’s a roaming service: so if you’re in a location where you can’t get your usual phone network provider’s data signal, or if you’re traveling and there’s no Wi-Fi around and data roaming is prohibitively expensive, then ChatSIM might be the answer.

It’s a chat-specific global SIM card that’s struck deals with a whole range of mobile operators to deliver data and MMS services. With the SIM installed everything’s automatic: if you’re in range of a partner’s data service, your phone connects to it and you can WhatsApp away to your heart’s content.

ChatSIM costs €10 for a year of unlimited chats and texts (provided you behave yourself: you mustn’t repeatedly exceed the average daily traffic limit, which is defined as: "the average traffic exchanged by all active basic rate ChatSim cards"). If you want to share multimedia content such as photos and videos or make voice calls you’ll need to buy a 'recharge', which costs €25 for 250 MB of traffic. Recharges expire after 30 days.

It’s important to note that ChatSIM is all about chat, chat and nothing but chat. If you read the press blurb you’ll see that it actually blocks traffic from non-chat apps in order to keep chat apps running smoothly, so it’s not a solution if you want a fully functional internet connection when you’re traveling. For that, you’ll need a SIM with data roaming, not just chat.

Do you live your life on WhatsApp? And if you do, do you go through the seven stages of grief when you can’t get a data connection? Let us know in the comments!