WhatsApp Calling feature now Available on Android, coming soon for iOS and WP users



WhatsApp Calling Feature, Calling, WhatsApp, Sumit Kar, RJ Varun





If you've been sitting, wishing and waiting for your Android handset to let you make free data-based calls, then today's your lucky day. Android users can finally make voice calls on WhatsApp. The feature was there from the version 2.11.528 but thanks to a quiet but major internal update which made it possible for all users to get the most awaited feature. The feature has been teased for months, with the update hitting select users a month ago. Now, however, it seems it's available to all, with the latest version of WhatsApp offering a new, cleaner layout, with three tabs for Calls, Chats, and Contacts. As you'd expect, you simply click the Calls tab and select a contact to start talking.





The company has not yet confirmed about the Update officially. I think WhatsApp will let everyone know about the feature through their official blog.





Voice calling for the app should also be coming to iOS and Windows Phone in the near future. It should also be noted that these are app-to-app voice calls, unlike previous version of WhatsApp which have allowed users to call contacts by simply switching to their smartphone's regular mobile services.





Calling













So how does it work? 


I gave it a whirl over here in Kolkata(India), calling my friends Shreya Roy (Kolkata) and Sayan Chakrabarti in Manipal, Karnataka. Though the quality was clear, there were a couple of technical glitches. On one call, there was a delay of a couple of seconds, and on another, Arijit complained about an annoying echo, while RJ Varun Da (Power FM) said the WhatsApp voice calling feature is working better that any other VoIP services he use on 2G network. Received a call from Prodosh Dutta and the sound clarity was good. However, there are some problems, those small problems could be early teething problems, and similar issues are typical with other VOIP services. 


While calling my friends I found that those using Windows Phone, Symbian S40/S60 or iOS could not be reached.





WhatsApp Calling feature now Available on Android, coming soon for iOS and WP users





While writing this the current version of WhatsApp is 2.12.19 








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