WhatsApp adds support for voice and video calling on desktop app
WhatsApp has recently been adding a ton of features like the disappearing messages and payment services despite the backlash it has been facing for its controversial privacy policy update.
During the pandemic, there was a massive growth in voice and video calls among the users. The Facebook-owned messenger saw this huge increase too. As a matter of fact, users broke the record for the most calls made in a single day on New Year’s Eve. The number of calls rose to 1.4 billion on the day.
So finally, WhatsApp has now started rolling out support for voice and video calls to its Windows and Mac apps from March 4, 2021.
“Answering on a bigger screen makes it easier to work with colleagues, see your family more clearly on a bigger canvas, or free up your hands to move around a room while talking.”, WhatsApp said in a blog post.
WhatsApp said that its desktop app for Windows and Mac will only support one-to-one calls for now but will soon upgrade the feature to include group video and voice calls.
“To make desktop calling more useful, we made sure it works seamlessly for both portrait and landscape orientation, appears in a resizable standalone window on your computer screen and is set to be always on top so you never lose your video chats in a browser tab or stack of open windows.”, the messenger said, which began testing this feature back in December 2020.
At that time, it was only available to a select few users who got to test it. This new feature should prove to be quite useful for people who use the desktop app regularly. This eliminates the need to look up to a different app for calls when you are on your desktop.