WhatsApp is making it easier to join or start calls on the app. The company has introduced a feature called Call Links that is pretty much self-explanatory. It lets you create a shareable link to a WhatsApp voice or video call. Anyone with a WhatsApp account can start or join the call by clicking the link. You don’t need to have their contact number saved on your phone. You can share the link through any medium and they can join the call through it as long as they have a WhatsApp account.
This feature comes in handy for professionals when they require to talk multiple clients through something. They can create a link for a WhatsApp call and share it with their clients. Of course, there are many other use cases for it. Imagery shared by WhatsApp head Will Cathcart shows you can create the link from the Calls tab that sits on the extreme right in the top navigation row. The feature should be available on both iOS and Android apps starting this week.
WhatsApp doubles down on videoconferencing efforts with Call Links
This Call Links feature is WhatsApp’s latest step towards a more feature-riched videoconferencing tool. Most other videoconferencing solutions, such as Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, already offer this ability to join calls via links. Of course, these are more than just videoconferencing apps as they offer a broad suite of productivity and remote collaboration tools. But the Meta-owned platform is seemingly looking to grab some chunk of the videoconferencing market from them.
That’s further supported by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that the company is testing encrypted video calling for up to 32 people on WhatsApp. The popular messaging app currently lets you place group video calls in chat groups with up to 32 participants. However, only eight people can be active on the video call at a time. So this is another major step in the right direction as it looks to become a more comprehensive videoconferencing tool.
The new Call Links feature on WhatsApp is just starting to roll out to users. It could take a few days before everyone gets the feature. You can go to the aforementioned Calls tab to see if you have it. Make sure to keep the app updated to get the feature early. You can click on the button below to download the latest version of WhatsApp from the Google Play Store.