WhatsApp provides audio and video calls for its application
The Facebook-owned messaging service said on Thursday: WhatsApp is providing voice and video call support for its desktop app, providing convenience for countless people sitting in front of computers.
And WhatsApp explained that its desktop application, approximately five years old, for Windows and Mac OS supports one-to-one calls at the present time, but it expands this feature to include voice and video calls in the future.
Video calling works seamlessly for both portrait and landscape orientation, and the desktop app is set to always be on top so you never lose video chats in a browser tab or the pile of open windows.
Speaking of that, support for audio and video calls is not extended to the WhatsApp web app at this time.
Support for the new feature should be useful to the millions of people who use the WhatsApp desktop app every day, and have had to use Zoom or Google Meet to make one-on-one video calls across the desktop.
WhatsApp, which is used by more than 2 billion people, did not share the prevalence of audio and video calls on its platform, but said: It handled more than 1.4 billion calls on New Year's Eve.
And just like the 100 billion messages that WhatsApp processes through its platform every day, voice and video calls are also encrypted end-to-end.
And after the service became famous for taking months to add enhanced features to its app, it is clear that WhatsApp has gotten faster in adding new features in the past year.
And in late January, Facebook added biometric fingerprint, face, or eye print authentication to the WhatsApp desktop and web app, an additional layer of protection that makes more sense after today's update.
It also launched ephemeral messages, photos and videos late last year, and launched a payments service in India, its largest market by number of users.
The new feature additions come as WhatsApp tries to convince users to agree to the planned changes to the privacy policy.