How to make calls and video calls with WhatsApp from desktop

flourish smart work Bring luck for many applications, such as Microsoft TeamsAnd the Google is dead e Zoom meetings, which has undergone an unexpected development thanks to the possibility offered to users to do so Video calls from a computer, whether it’s a desktop or laptop computer.

The same cannot be said about The WhatsApp, which is still the most used app for personal video calling and fun, but it has been almost cut as it does not allow its users to make video calls from Windows PC or Mac.

Or rather did not allow, because from the first March 2021 It is possible to make calls and video calls with WhatsApp using desktop and laptop computers, even if many do not know it.

Few people know about this function and the reason is: to use it is not so simple, you have to follow a procedure that will be unnatural for many because it does not. WhastApp Web, as you might expect, but from WhatsApp Desktop App, an app that no one has ever downloaded (because it’s much easier to use WhatsApp Web from the browser).

WhatsApp video calls from a computer: Basic requirements

There are details Technical requirements To be able to make a video call, or even just a simple audio call, using WhatsApp using a computer instead of a smartphone. The feature is available at windowsFrom 64-bit version 1903 onwards macOS, starting with version 10.13.

Of course they need one Webcam, a microphoneAnd an audio output device and an internet connection for your computer, as with all video calling apps.

Then you need to use the WhatsApp Desktop application, which is available for both Windows and macOS in the Microsoft and Apple stores or directly from the WhatsApp website: https://www.whatsapp.com/download.

This application, which has an interface and operation exactly the same as WhatsApp Web from a browser, should be given access to both the microphone and the camera as soon as we are asked.

WhatsApp video calls from a computer: How to do it

Once you have downloaded and installed WhatsApp Web for your operating system to use it, we will have to use the same method that we use with WhatsApp Web: Open WhatsApp on your phone and then go to Menu > Connected Devices > Connect a Device.

The camera will open and we will have to frame the QR code that appears on the WhatsApp Desktop application to connect the application to the computer and the profile hosted on the phone. Very important note: If we have already connected the WhatsApp profile to WhatsApp Web, we will have to disconnect WhatsApp Web, otherwise we will not be able to connect WhatsApp Desktop.

At this point, the game ends: on WhatsApp Web, by opening an active chat, we will find the icons for the camera and the handset in the upper right. By pressing the first we will launch a video call, by pressing the second we will launch a simple voice call.

WhatsApp video calls from a computer: Too many limits?

As it should already be clear after this explanation, making desktop calls and video calls with WhatsApp is definitely more stressful than performed by competing applications. But that’s not all: the system still has many limitations.

The first term, already mentioned, is the fact that by entering the WhatsApp Desktop automatically We leave WhatsApp Web. This is due to the fact that there is still no real “multi-device” WhatsApp and you can use the app on one phone and one additional device, via a specific browser or app.

The second term Is that WhatsApp Desktop does not allow us to do that Group video calls: We will be able to make calls and video calls with only one contact at a time, with a single profile.

The third term is that the function of calls and video calls is much simpler and less developed What the competitors offer: No waiting room, as soon as you click the camcorder or phone icon, the call will be started right away and the other person’s phone will ring.

So, WhatsApp Desktop is clearly not one yet real alternative To Microsoft Teams, Zoom Meetings, Google Meet, or other similar applications or already suitable for business video calls: The video call functionality is useful for those who already use, for “special purposes”, the WhatsApp Desktop application rather than WhatsApp Web but it is undeniable that, at the time Currently, WhatsApp Web has much more users than WhatsApp Desktop.