WhatsApp will be getting rid of its $1 (approximately Rs. 68) annual subscription fee this year. The widely used messaging app confirmed plans to ditch annual fee from all of its apps across various platforms over the next several weeks.Until now,

“;”WhatsApp asked some users to pay an annual fee for using the app after the first year of use – though as many of us have experienced, most users were not asked to pay after a year, and instead were given extensions each year. The company however believes that the approach of annual fee hasn’t worked successfully.

“Many WhatsApp users don’t have a debit or credit card number and they worried they’d lose access to their friends and family after their first year. So over the next several weeks, we’ll remove fees from the different versions of our app and WhatsApp will no longer charge you for our service”, says the company in an official blog
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http://www.bookspen.com/2016/01/19/whatsapp-becomes-free-drops-annual-subscription-fee/

That's better... They should make it optional because I know they would have to introduce ads which would clog up pages like BBM, so they can give users the option to pay for ad free versions

Confirmed free on my fone