WhatsApp finally rolled out its highly-anticipated voice and video calling feature for the Desktop app last week. The Facebook-owned instant messaging platform says that the feature is rolling out to users now and claims that similar to the voice and video calling on the mobile apps, the Desktop app also offers end-to-end encryption for calls. While WhatsApp calling does not directly compete against Zoom or Google Meet, the new feature has been highly anticipated by its massive userbase for over a year now.
The new WhatsApp feature will work in both portrait and landscape orientations, and the video and voice calls appear in a separate resizable window. As mentioned, voice and video calls on WhatsApp Desktop are end-to-end encrypted. In order to use the new video calling feature, users will have to install the WhatsApp desktop app on either a Mac or PC, which requires that you already be a WhatsApp user on mobile. After installing the desktop app (from WhatsApp website), users need to scan a QR code to log in. Once logged in, users need to open a chat, where they will see two new buttons for voice call (telephone receiver icon) and video call (video camera icon). Clicking on either will initiate a voice call or a video call with the selected contact.
Currently, voice and video calling is only available for one-to-one chats and will later come to group chats. On mobile, WhatsApp group chats support up to eight people during a single voice or video call.
Earlier, the voice and video calling icons started appearing on WhatsApp Web though the feature was still under development. WhatsApp had also announced that its mobile app clocked 1.4 billion voice and video calls on the this New Year’s eve – breaking all its previous records. The growth in video and voice calls not just on WhatsApp but elsewhere, is mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has pushed people to stay indoors.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Comments
0 comment