WhatsApp Messenger to Add Voice Calling Later This Year

WhatsApp Messenger has announced that it will add voice calling later this year, reports The Guardian. The popular messaging app was just acquired by Facebook for approximately $19 billion.

Founder and chief executive, Jan Koum, announced that voice calling will be introduced initially on iPhone and Android in the second quarter of this year, with BlackBerry and Windows Phone to be updated later.

“I grew up in Russia, we had a telephone line, but a load of our neighbours didn’t. It became a shared resource for the whole apartment complex. People would come and knock on the door and ask to call their family in another city,” said Koum at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. “We’re adding voice to WhatsApp so people can stay in touch with friends and loved ones no matter where they are in the world.”


Koum says that they will have the best voice product out there.

“We use the least amount of bandwidth out there, and have optimised the hell out of it. We’ve made sure the quality is there, though, just like the messaging functions of WhatsApp,” said Koum.

You can download WhatsApp Messenger from the App Store for free. Follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS to find out when the new voice features launch.

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