WhatsApp Now Features Voice Calling

WhatsApp has had its fair share of media hoopla in the past few months, including a big boost in subscribers in January, but the mobile messenger app’s official announcement of voice calling is a story that won’t be wrapping fish any time soon.

Upon upgrading to WhatsApp version 2.12.5 via the WhatsApp website, Android users of the Facebook-owned, subscription-based messenger app, will be met with a completely renovated user interface that features separate tabs for calls, contacts and chats. WhatsApp previously had a voice-messaging feature, but it functioned more like a delayed walky-talky than a telephone. The new voice feature will allow users to call directly from their contact lists and communicate in real-time, with speaker phone, mute and all.

The beta version of the WhatsApp calling feature has been available to a small group for about a month, and was imperfect by consumer standards, according to an article posted by Forbes. But with the official release of free voice for users, the messaging app can finally start competing with big-league VoIP offers such as Skype, Viber and iMessage.

There are two temporal downsides to the new voice feature for users. The first is that the calling feature is available for the new 2.12.5 version, but Google Play is only offering the older 2.12.19 version—the afore mentioned “imperfect,” edition. This means that users who want the features now will have to download an APK file (Android application package) via the WhatsApp website, which requires a bit of extra work. The second is that the new features are not yet available for iOS.

But both of these issues are minor, and will be resolved soon enough—we can expect to see the new calling functions for iOS within the next few weeks. And once they are, WhatsApp users will have unfettered access to the same voice calling features currently offered by competitors.

For all you WhatsApp users out there, that’s what’s up.