Whatsapp is steadily overtaking SMS and Facebook messenger as the king of messaging. According to a research by Jana mobile network in 2014 half of Kenyans have whatsapp. Applications like Whatsapp allow mobile users to send real time text messages to individuals or groups of friends at minimal cost. In this study we provide a deeper understanding of the motives and perception of the messaging App, Whatsapp, and learn how more about the services offered beyond and above SMS.We conducted a qualitative research based on nine semi structured interviews with randomly selected University of Nairobi students. Our research question the massive adoption of Whatsapp in both the frequency and time spent online and how students are appropriating Whatsapp in terms of uses and highlighting while Whatsapp has amazing features, SMS is still considered more formal, privacy preserving technology for mobile communication.