Amid fierce competition in the instant messaging market to gain the trust and attachment of users to maximize profits, the "WhatsApp" application launched 3 new updates, at a time experts considered "early" compared to what was expected, prompting questions about the reasons for the haste.

The three updates include the use of emojis to reply to messages, the ability to share large files up to 2 gigabytes in size, and doubling the maximum size of group chats from 256 to 500 participants, according to the American technology site "The Verge".

By launching the feature of using emojis to reply to messages, a service present on other applications such as "Messenger", "Slack", and "Telegram", WhatsApp users can now interact with messages quickly using emojis in every chat bubble, meaning that users can add an emoji from among 6 different icons to a message instead of typing a reply.

The ability to share large files, up to 2 gigabytes in size, can be considered a huge leap back from the previous limit before the new update of 100 megabytes, where users will be able to send high-resolution photos or large videos in business settings and among friends, ending the nightmare of having to compress things before sending them through WhatsApp.

These updates were not surprising, as last month, Meta, the company that owns the WhatsApp application, said these features would appear "soon", but it seems they hurried to launch them amid heated competition with Telegram.

Regarding the reasons for rushing to launch the new features, digital media and electronic marketing consultant Mohamed Al-Harthi says, "WhatsApp wanted by launching the new features to provide better services to its users, whose number is 2 billion active monthly, who trust it and expect from it all that is new."

The digital media and electronic marketing consultant adds to "Sky News Arabia" website that the application desires "to achieve a relative advantage over other instant messaging applications; foremost among them Telegram, to attract more users, and then maximize profits, which is the goal of all technological applications."

The Telegram app is considered the closest competitor to WhatsApp, with more than 500 million active users, and is classified as one of the most privacy-preserving applications for its users.

However, Al-Harthi believes that none of the other applications can displace WhatsApp from the throne of the most used instant messaging applications, due to the continued growth of Facebook and owning the necessary technological and physical infrastructure to secure its top position, but at the same time he believes it needs continuous development by launching features that make it unique at all times, to ensure that growth and thus maximize profits."

Last April, WhatsApp added a new feature increasing the number of people who can participate in group video calls from 8 to 32 people.