WhatsApp could soon be bringing the fight to the likes of Skype and Viber with the addition of voice calling, after a Reddit user in India posted screenshots indicating he now has access to the feature.
Given that the screenshots originated from India, it’s likely that WhatsApp is using the country as a test. It’s also worth noting that the Reddit user stated that he was running Android 5.0 Lollipop on a Google Nexus 5.
The user is currently unable to send invites to other people, and the screenshots have since been taken down from Reddit as they contained personal information. There is still, however, a video available on YouTube that clearly shows a new ‘Calls’ tab.
Users will already find a call option for contacts within the WhatsApp application, but this is to simply call that person through your mobile network, not via the Internet.
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum announced at Mobile World Congress 2014 that the company was looking into rolling the feature out in the future, so the rest of the world will hopefully be able to jump in and start calling other users soon.
The news follows the recently added ability for Android users to use WhatsApp through Google’s Chrome browser, called WhatsApp Web.
Stay tuned for news of a global rollout, as soon as we have it.
Source: The Telegraph