Tag: voice calling

Windows Phone Users Can Finally Make Calls Via WhatsApp

Windows Phones users were left behind in the race to get WhatsApp’s most coveted feature. They were disappointed when WhatsApp introduced the voice-calling feature for Android and iOS users in April. Today, they can celebrate as the popular messaging app has enabled voice-calling for devices supporting Windows 8 and above.

WhatsApp first introduced the voice-calling feature in March for Android users. In April, the feature was rolled out in an update for iOS users.

Voice-calling will be made available in the version 2.12.60. The feature allows WhatsApp users to call each other for free using the Internet. Users have noticed that the interface is similar to the one used by Android for making regular calls. WhatsApp previously allowed users to make regular calls from the app itself, which has since been replaced by its own call-making feature.

Although smartphone users were thrilled to be able to make VOIP calls through their favourite messaging app, they soon realised it wasn’t that big a deal. The feature is still not popular in India due to slow internet connectivity.

June 25, 2015
With this New Feature, Facebook Messenger is Now Ready to Take on Skype

Voice-Calling within the app is a recent trend every established and emerging messaging software company is following. Recently, Facebook joined the drift and updated its Messenger service to enable voice-calling in the app. Now users can talk face-to-face with their friends anywhere through Facebook.

Initiating the voice chat service is a child’s play, and users just have to tap on the video icon in the top right corner of the screen to pop up a voice call. The service is available for iOS and Android users as of now. Countries that will be able to access this feature are Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Laos, Lithuania, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, the UK, the US and Uruguay. The tool will soon arrive in other countries “over the coming months.”

The standard messaging service on Messenger still exists. Users can anytime stop a voice call and get back to the customary messaging platform and vice-versa. The company claims that there are over 600 million active users of its Messenger app, and the voice-calling tool will help them with real-time video communication.

Facebook’s Messenger platform is on a development spree. Previously, it added the ability to send money to friends via Messenger, which was followed by the release of Messenger platform for Developers to help people connect with businesses.

Check out the video below for a detailed description of voice-calling on Messenger:

April 28, 2015
Airtel Introduces Super Cheap Unlimited Voice Calling Schemes for Broadband Subscribers

Following the footsteps of Indian cellular service provider BSNL, Airtel has announced plans to boost its landline service. Bharti Airtel launched an unlimited voice calling service for its broadband customers in the country.

The telecom company announced two voice packs: there is a Rs. 49 pack for unlimited local calls for a month, and the other is Rs. 99 per month plan to make unlimited local and STD calls.

Airtel said in a statement –

In an industry first, it will announce that its broadband customers can enjoy free voice calls to any network in the country 24×7. Customers can enjoy unlimited free local calls with the pack priced at Rs. 49 per month and unlimited free STD+local calls at Rs. 99 per month to any network, anywhere in the country to both landlines and mobile phones round the clock.

The new offers are for non-commercial use, and allow users to make calls to both fixed lines and mobile numbers.

Airtel has an extensive network of fixed-line telephone and broadband services in 87 cities of India, but its user base is smaller in comparison to BSNL. According to a study by TRAI, Airtel has around 3.39 million landline customers in the country, while BSNL had more than five times the fixed-line subscribers, at 16.6 million.

Recently, BSNL announced free unlimited voice calling from 9pm to 7am across India, which will kick off from 1st May.

April 27, 2015
iOS Users to Get WhatsApp Voice Calling in a Couple of Weeks, Says Founder

WhatsApp recently led a direct assault at telecom companies’ core business, voice calling. By introducing the voice calling feature, WhatsApp became a complete phone utility in itself. The feature is being rolled out gradually on Android and WhatsApp’s founder has announced that iOS users of the app will be bestowed with voice calling feature really soon.

WhatsApp’s co-founder, Brian Acton was speaking at Facebook’s F8 developers’ conference when he made the announcement. He said iOS users will be getting the voice calling update in a “couple weeks”.

There have already been a few unofficial efforts towards bringing the feature on iOS through jailbroken iPhones, but an official version is definitely better and secure.

As the date mentioned by the company is still vague, you can expect it to take a few weeks more. Facebook Messenger chief, David Marcus had said that WhatsApp had spent years creating and testing the voice calling feature before bringing it to Android phones. So maybe it’s better to wait a few weeks to get a fully functional voice calling feature instead of bug filled versions that may be available now.

It would also be interesting to see how the telecom companies respond to this as it’s a major threat to their core business. If past is an indication, they might steeply increase the price of data packs and may also try to take initiatives to break the internet. This is no ordinary feature, and we should anticipate a major legal battle soon between the old powers and the new innovative tech developers over the future course of communication technology.

March 26, 2015
Facebook Probably Planning a New Caller-ID and Call Blocking App Called “Phone”

Facebook might have accidentally popped a small glance at the next major app coming from its stable. A message popped up on the Android app of some Facebook users which gave an indication that the social media giant is working on a new app called “Phone.”

The feature popped out with a FB-only tag and showed a dialer icon. However, on tapping the icon, it led to a ‘no page found’ error. It is said that the feature is still in works and the link might have accidentally showed up in the users feed. A report from Android Police stated that the Phone button seems like a replacement for a dialer and will automatically block spam calls and show detailed information about the incoming calls.

Whatsapp, which was acquired by Facebook last year, has also rolled out their version of the calling feature that allows you to make voice calls to one another using data connection or WiFi data. As of now, the only problem Whatsapp may be facing regarding the calling feature is the lag-time in between a call.

Facebook has already rolled out voice calling feature on Messenger. Android and iOS users in can call anyone through this app, consuming only cellular or WiFi data. The feature came to India last year. Now we hope Facebook doesn’t force us to download a whole new app to clutter our devices again. Instead they can include the feature in their existing app like Whatsapp did with their latest update.

March 21, 2015
WhatsApp Speeds Up Roll Out of Voice Calling On all Android Devices

WhatsApp’s voice calling features has been a long awaited feature. The messaging app has virtually replaced SMS and now it is set to take its aim at the core business of mobile operators. The company had already begun offering the feature for some users through an invite system. It is being reported that WhatsApp has broadened the roll out process for voice calling, and it is available for all Android device.

This would be an exciting news for the users of the app. To get the update, users will have to receive a call from someone with the feature activated on their device. Once the user receives the call, the user interface will change, and three tabs will be introduced which represent calls, chats and contacts. The call section will feature call records like incoming, outgoing and missed calls.

WhatsApp has been offering the calling feature unofficially. It was reported a few days back that WhasApp had started offering invites for the feature. Those invites were time limited to a few hours. That time limit has been extended now.

Recently a malware was doing rounds that claimed to offer voice calling feature but simply directed the users to a malicious website. The website asks people to take part in a survey but ends up installing malware on the victim’s smartphone. So it’s advisable to not click on any random link and wait for the invite call to come to your device.

March 14, 2015
WhatsApp’s Voice Calling Feature Now Coming to All Android Devices

A few days back it was being reported that WhatsApp was testing voice calling feature on select devices. The messaging giant is now all set to bring the feature to all its Android subscribers. This will be a fantastic news for the users but will also be a major cause of concern for the network operators who have already lost tremendous amount of SMS revenue to messaging apps.

The update seems to get activated when a user with voice calling capability calls his WhatsApp contacts. Once the update is activated, the user interface also changes to feature a separate voice calling screen. A phone icon also appears next to the WhatsApp contacts, and you can also see the call logs of your device.

It seems like the update procedure isn’t working for all users yet. There might also be a possibility that the developers might have restricted the number of people a person can invite by voice calling them. WhatsApp hasn’t officially announced the roll-out but with the number of devices supporting the feature, we can anticipate an announcement any time soon.

With this offering, Facebook owned WhatsApp will also direct an assault at voice calling apps like Viber, WeChat and others. You can even expect a backlash from the phone companies in the form of increased data pack costs. But no matter what, the 700 Million WhatsApp users are going to get a reason to celebrate real soon.

February 21, 2015
Things to Know About the New WhatsApp Voice Calling Feature

After launching WhatsApp on the Desktop, the instant messaging service WhatsApp has finally started rolloing out the much-awaited voice calling feature to select users for beta testing.

Here are three things you should know about the recently added voice calling tool:

Invite System

As the voice calling feature on WhatsApp is releasing to selected customers, all the users will not be able to enjoy it on their devices as of now. The company said that there is an invite system and a person with the update can send invites to their friends by giving them a call.

Easy calling

The instant messaging service has kept things simple. Until now there was an attachment option in the chat record of every person, but now a call icon has been added to make a call. Also, there would be an option to put the phone on speaker while calling.

Call Log

If you think you can just make and receive a call, then this may surprise you. WhatsApp has an organised call log system where the app keeps a track of your recent calling history. That means you will be notified of the missed calls as well.

Have a look at this video to better understand the voice calling feature:

February 2, 2015
WhatsApp’s Free Voice Calling Feature Captured in a Leaked Screenshot

At the commencement of year 2014, it was learnt that WhatsApp was planning on diminishing the dependability of its users on other calling services and had glad plans of introducing a voice calling feature. Months passed, but there was no sign of the said feature on the cross-platform mobile messaging service. However, a reliable source has come up with some interesting screenshots that depict the calling feature on WhatsApp.

The website Androidworld.nl posted some pictures of the new version of WhatsApp that shows voice calling. The screenshots also suggest that the upgraded version will have a separate window for making calls to WhatsApp contacts and a dedicated call log. Users can keep a tab on missed calls, ongoing calls and received calls through this window. Additionally, it can also include options like call mute, switch to text message, and hang up.

However, these are just leaks and there is no proof of its authenticity. Jan Koum, WhatsApp CEO, said in an industry conference that the company will surely be rolling out voice calling feature in Q1 2015. The delayed release has been due to some technical complications faced by the development team.

If WhatsApp succeeds in overcoming all the said hurdles and brings out a version featuring voice calling, it can prove to be a threat for the other services like Viber, Line, Facebook Messenger and more.

December 24, 2014
Whatsapp’s New Voice Calling Feature May Arrive Sooner Than Expected

Whatsapp, the popular messaging app, has given a hard time to telecom operators by eating up their revenue. However, Whatsapp’s arsenal had been missing one big feature, Voice calling. Talks about the new voice calling feature on Whatsapp have been on since February. It all started when WhatsApp CEO, Jan Kuom, announced that the voice calling feature would be added to Android and iPhones first, followed by BlackBerry, Nokia and Microsoft platforms.

Now, it seems that the long-awaited feature will come to the app sooner than expected. A pop-up has been spotted on the app window that seeks user’s permission to use the microphone, hinting the voice-calling feature to be a part of their next update. The latest WhatsApp update was released for the iPhone on September 8. With it, WhatsApp added several features such as improved location sharing and fast camera access.

However, the release notes never mentioned about a pop-up, which requests access to the microphone every time the app is opened. The pop-up will only appear to those people who have not already allowed the app to access their device’s microphone.

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app with over 600 million users. The messaging app was acquired by Facebook earlier this year in a deal worth $19 billion.

September 16, 2014