In its second major roll-out this year, WhatsApp has introduced video calling to the one billion people using it.
The Facebook-owned messaging app has announced that the ability to make video calls using Wi-Fi or data connections will be coming to mobile devices around the world. The feature, which has been common on Skype, Facebook Messenger, FaceTime and Google’s video messaging app Duo for some time, will work on iPhone, Android, and Windows phones – with rollout taking place over a number of days.
“We’re introducing this feature because we know that sometimes voice and text just aren’t enough,” WhatsApp said in a blog post. “We want to make these features available to everyone, not just those who can afford the most expensive new phones or live in countries with the best cellular networks.”
WhatsApp says it has “received many requests” for video calling and has built its video messaging to be able to work across multiple different devices – Apple’s FaceTime, for example, can only be used across its own devices. The new feature may not be a massive surprise as reports of video calling tests being incorporated into the WhatsApp Android app surfaced in October.
The company has tried to make the video calling as simple as possible though, there are no Snapchat-style filters and the ability to draw or write on a video is not included. Earlier this year WhatsApp bolstered the security of its app by turning on end-to-end encryption by default for everyone using it. The encryption method means WhatsApp, as a provider, cannot access the content of messages sent between its customer – this is only available to those who have the encryption keys. The move, which in part has been followed by Google’s messaging app and Facebook Messenger, saw WhatsApp being called the most secure messaging app by Amnesty International.
Google’s Duo video app features end-to-end encryption for all calls made using it, as does FaceTime. It is unclear whether WhatsApp video calling is encrypted in the same way. WhatsApp’s next major feature introduction could be two-step authentication, which it is trial in a beta version.
