WhatsApp users on Android can now all tap into the app’s new voice-calling feature.
The feature has been teased for months, with the update hitting select users a few weeks ago. Rolled out in February to a small number of people, the call feature then expanded to invitation-only by those who were able to get the feature.
Now it’s available to all Android phone users.
There’s just one catch – you may not be able to get it from the version currently up at the Google Play Store. There are reports of the calling feature not working under older versions of WhatsApp too. Also, the update may not have arrived to all the regions where the wildly popular app is used, and even if it has, it may work intermittently.
But for those of you who have it, the latest version of WhatsApp offers a new, cleaner layout (as seen in the picture above), with 3 tabs for Calls, Chats, and Contacts. As you’d expect, you simply click the Calls tab and select a contact to chart talking.
I personally gave it a quick test run myself and so far, it’s as clear as voice calls can get, with not even a hint of lag. But that could be because both myself as well as the recipient were connected to WiFi at the time.
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.
Try it ;)
It’s only available on Android for now, but WhatsApp founder Brian Acton recently said it would hit iOS in the near future.
