A few weeks ago, WhatsApp began rolling out calling through their app to a few users. However no one really knew how to get it activated on their phone and keeping it activated. It appears that today, WhatsApp has begun rolling out calling to everyone now. WhatsApp has flipped a few switches to get it going today, as there’s no new update here, and it works on version 2.11.528. I have that version on my Xperia Z3, but no calling just yet. According to Android Police, a friend with Whatsapp Calling enabled has to call you to get it to trigger. As that’s how they got the functionality enabled. While it may be annoying, but it is a good way to have a slow rollout and make sure this feature doesn’t kill their servers.
WhatsApp has calls in it’s dedicated tab now. So you have Calls, Chats, and Contacts. So you are able to see your call log, your chats with various contacts, and then your contacts on WhatsApp. All from that “home screen”. Which is definitely nice to have. If you tap on the contacts picture, you’ll get a bigger picture along with the option to call chat, or view their information. Kinda similar to the Contacts app in Android.
Calling through WhatsApp uses WiFi or 3G/4G to make calls. So you aren’t using minutes or your carrier’s voice network. It appears that you are not able to make calls to your WhatsApp contacts from the phone app on your phone. You’ll have to exit the app to do that, unfortunately. Which probably isn’t a big deal, but if you’re in an area with slow internet, you may want to use their voice network. Hopefully WhatsApp will add the ability to switch between voice and VoIP in the future for their calls. But it is nice to see this feature finally rolling out.
So how many of our readers use WhatsApp? Are you excited about their Calling feature to finally be rolling out? Be sure to let us know in the comments down below.