WhatsApp Desktop App Gains Support for Voice and Video Calls

[MacRumors]

WhatsApp is today updating its desktop app for Mac and PC with voice and video calling support, the company announced.

Like WhatsApp's mobile app, voice and video calls on the desktop equivalent are end-to-end encrypted, ensuring only the people conversing have access to the contents of a call.

WhatsApp has been in the process of testing the new desktop call functions over the last few months, so today marks the full rollout of what were previously only experimental features accessible by a select few.

As it stands, one important difference on desktop from the mobile experience is that it isn't yet possible to participate in group calls. Only one-to-one calling is currently supported, although WhatsApp says it intends to add group voice and video calling to desktop in the future.

To use the new video and voice calling features on WhatsApp Desktop, users need to have a mobile WhatsApp account. To learn how to set up WhatsApp on your Mac, be sure to check out our step-by-step guide.

Article Link: WhatsApp Desktop App Gains Support for Voice and Video Calls

 

[George Dawes]

I still prefer the Apple versions

 

[ashleykaryl]

Hmm, end-to-end encryption, but with Facebook's privacy policy I am wondering to which end.

 

[cicalinarrot]

Until I won’t be able to use it without my phone like I do with Telegram, it’s all pointless to me.

 

[Nordichund]

Good for WhatsApp, another attempt to close the gate before all the sheep escape.

 

[The Samurai]

Still no iPad version...

 

[Suckfest 9001]

Meh at least it works on all desktop platforms instead of just Macs. Still deleted my account anyway

 

[kyjaotkb]

Now, please please make an Apple Watch app. I know, I should stop using Whatsapp. But I have litterally zero contacts using SMS or iMessage here in London and virtually everyone I know in Europe or Latin America uses Whatsapp exclusively. Not having a Watch app and being limited to receive notifications, without images and without access to the history of conversations, makes using an Apple Watch extremely frustrating.

 

[pavvel]

Who cares? WhatsApp is making me vomit with their back tracking, we love the customer and your privacy drivel.

 

[LFC2020]

No chance this garbage is going on my Mac.

 

[Wordman]

No thanks, Mr Zuckerberg.

 

[wanha]

While I prefer Apple's FaceTime, this is still a welcome update for those of us who sometimes need to do WhatsApp voice/video calls and prefer to do on our Macs.

 

[W2u7Yw4HaD]

Until I won’t be able to use it without my phone like I do with Telegram, it’s all pointless to me.

Do you leave your phone usually in some underground cave when you are home? or always on airplane mode or something.. Explain why this is an issue for anyone.. Sure, it's great iMessage works without your iPhone.. I can't deny that.. But hardly a show stopper..

 

[yurc]

So, it's called Whatscrapp

 

[Gmc8538]

Jesus you lot... do any of you have friends who don‘t use iPhones? WhatsApp is the de-facto way to chat with people on whatever device they use with just phone numbers instead of adding people with usernames like other apps.

That and if you want to send media to someone using an android phone then messages app is no good unless you’ve got an MMS allowance.

And to be honest I find WhatsApp a better chat app then iMessage - I’ve personally been using it for the past 11 years and still use it daily.

Anyway it’s great that they’re finally rolling out video to the desktop platform, I wish they’d introduce this for iPad too but that sides always been lacking.

As for the whole Facebook thing - I don’t really care, they’ve not done anything drastic to ruin WhatsApp yet. Don’t use actual Facebook myself but I bet the majority of people moaning about Facebook probably have Facebook accounts... if they don’t then their partners probably do...

 

[skogkatt]

Good news, I'm forced to still use it since here in Europe (Germany and Italy) Whatsapp is way down the more popular service. At least now I'll be able to videocall my parents on the MBA - ditching Skype completely at this point.

 

[CHLFC]

Was excited to read about this development but shocked to discover that both the Mac and Windows desktop WhatsApp apps do not support both the main speech recognition applications, Apple's Voice Control and Dragon Professional. This is a major blow to accessibility and people who rely on speech recognition to communicate and get things done online. It silences us and should not be acceptable. Shame on you Facebook and WhatsApp. Thankfully, WhatsApp web does support speech recognition in Safari and Firefox but I don't think the web version will support video and voice calls

 

[Mishkale]

is it US only for now? or somebody in other countries sees the update

 

[Captain Trips]

Still no iPad version...

You say that like it is a bad thing...

On a serious note, I do realize that people who want/need to use WhatsApp could benefit from an iPadOS version.

 

[higgsboson]

Updated macOS version - see no changes. Is it a hidden feature? Has anyone made it work?
P.S. I use Catalina if it matters.

 

[cicalinarrot]

Do you leave your phone usually in some underground cave when you are home? or always on airplane mode or something.. Explain why this is an issue for anyone.. Sure, it's great iMessage works without your iPhone.. I can't deny that.. But hardly a show stopper..

Many reasons: it takes an eternity to load, it sometimes disconnects and asks for the QR, my phone battery happens to die, my phone happens to have bad connectivity, my data is stored in my phone requiring space and backups. No need for caves to call it a dealbreaker for me.

 

[minimo3]

Still no iPad version...

Meanwhile Signal has an iPad app even though it’s development team is 1/10 the size

 

[Lukasz Rewerenda]

Does not work for me. I even downloaded the most recent version manually, 2.2106.10 -- and it does not allow video calls. I really hate this app. The only one I hate even more is the abomination called Skype, with its super loud ringing sound on my ipad pro - which completely ignores ipad's volume slider settings.

 

[calstanford]

Is it a Universal app yet or still just intel?

 

[michaeljk]

The version currently on the App Store doesn't say a thing about the new video chat capabilities. I am guessing they made the announcement, but haven't actually released the app on the Mac App Store, which seems really dumb. Like others, I cringe at the thought of putting anything related to Zuckerburg on any of my devices. However, for my business I need a way to connect with people via video overseas, and so far Zoom seems like a real resource hog and doesn't work well at all in less than ideal internet situations. I am hoping WhatsApp will provide better services in those times.