WhatsApp voice and video calls now available on desktop PCs

Facebook-owned messaging giant WhatsApp on Thursday said it has launched both video and voice calling on its desktop apps for Windows and macOS.

The feature, which has been in development for some time, offers end-to-end encryption at all times, WhatsApp said. This means no one, including WhatsApp, can listen to or watch users’ calls.

The move is likely to turn WhatsApp into a greater rival to desktop video applications such as Zoom and Skype.

“Throughout the past year, we have seen significant increases in people calling one another on WhatsApp, often for long conversations,” the company said in a blog post.

“Last New Year’s Eve, we broke the record for the most calls ever made in a single day, with 1.4 billion voice and video calls,” it said.

“To make desktop calling more useful, we made sure it works seamlessly for both portrait and landscape orientation, appears in a resizable standalone window on your computer screen, and is set to be always on top so you never lose your video chats in a browser tab or stack of open windows,” it said.

For now, only one-to-one voice and video calls are supported. Group voice and video calls will be added “in the future”.  — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media