Did they actually charge though? I remember hearing about that but it's been my sole method of messaging for years and I never remember setting up payments with them
yeah they did. 0,99€ was the purchase of my whatsapp back then
IIRC it was 99 cents per year, and you could just keep "skipping" the payment. I don't think they ever cut anyone off from using it for not paying. A little bit like shareware (or nagware?).
I think they charged 1 Euro when you bought the app. I doubt that covers the costs to keep it running.