WhatsApp’s much anticipated voice calling feature has reportedly made its way to India. According to tipsters on Reddit, a number of users in India are already testing the new feature which is yet to see a widespread release across the world.
Sources said that the new feature is currently available in invite-only mode. Which means a user can get early access to the feature only via someone who already has the feature enabled on their account. Also the feature is only available on WhatsApp’s Android version. The latest version of WhatsApp for Android, version 2.11.508, is only available for download from its official website.
WhatsApp officially announced that it would get a voice calling feature like Viber and Skype after it was acquired by Facebook. However, the launch was delayed several times before the CEO announced that it won’t be until Q1 2015 when WhatsApp voice calling feature sees the light of day.
Now that we are in the first quarter of 2015, WhatsApp voice calling feature is being more prominent. First, a few screenshots showing the WhatsApp voice calling feature were leaked. And now there are reports that the feature has finally been rolled out to some users in India.
When WhatsApp’s voice service is enabled on an account, users reported seeing a dialer icon next to the contacts list. Some users also reported that pressing the dialer brings up the “Call via” option which lists the available apps to call from including the stock dialer of Android. This could be a bug that WhatsApp needs to fix before the new feature is globally released.
