With a new version of its Windows app, Facebook affiliate WhatsApp is introducing voice and video chat functionality to PC users on Thursday. Just like on a smartphone, these calls must also be end-to-end encrypted. Company Score In a message On his blog he also states that the desktop app will answer calls regardless of direction. So you can also make video calls to smartphone users who hold their phones vertically instead of rotating them to landscape mode.
Then the chat in question appears in its respective window, which the user can change its size as needed. You will want to use this option especially for conversations in portrait format, since mobile phone videos in portrait format only use a very small portion of the computer screen oriented horizontally mostly.
With the new functionality, WhatsApp competes directly with a number of widely used video chat and conferencing solutions such as Zoom, Teams, Skype and FaceTime, which are preinstalled on Apple devices. However, WhatsApp video conferencing can be held with a maximum of eight users, which prevents its use by larger groups.
Free – almost always
But WhatsApp calls – with or without video – are always free. Depending on the tariff and the volume of data, mobile phone users can, as usual, incur indirect costs from the transferred data.
In order to be able to use the desktop application, computer users first need their smart phone on which they are using WhatsApp. With his camera a must QR code generated by PC app Read in WhatsApp and authenticate the user via facial recognition or fingerprint, as long as the smartphone concerned supports such technology and is activated.
As is often the case, users should not expect to be able to try out the new functionality immediately after it is announced. According to WhatsApp, the new telephony function will be “rolling out over the next week to users with Windows computers all over the world.” Apple users will wait a little longer. According to the company, the Mac version will follow only “soon”.
