Been an iPhone prisoner/beaten-wife/lover since 2010. Whatsapp charged $1 per year for update. Happy to pay that in exchange for knowing that my familyand network information and more importantly info about my kids won’t be sold for pieces million times a minute on the digital ad auction markets.
IIRC they charged for the app download on ios, and on android the initial download was free, but with a promise that they would start charging an annual fee soon. But that never happened. They kept extending the deadline and then got bought out.
On iOS there was a one-time purchase fee. I recall there theoretically also being an annual charge, but IME this was always waived.
This is what I remember, tho I guess it’s possible they changed the terms for new users. But I bought it in late 2009, IIRC and it was either $0.99 or $2.99.