Popular messaging platform WhatsApp announced on Monday, September 26 that the social media company is working on a new feature “Call Links.”
In a statement, WhatsApp Head Manager, Will Cathcart said the new feature will allow users to send the link to not only all their WhatsApp contacts but also to their contacts that are not on WhatsApp.
According to the update, the call links will be available for audio and video calls.
"Excited to introduce Call Links on WhatsApp so you can easily start or join a call using just a link. Available for both audio and video calls starting this week,” Will Cathcart stated.
WhatsApp which was launched in January 2009 is a mobile application that allows users to send text messages, and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and also share documents and locations.
Once the option for call links is available, users will have to create call links which will be found on the call tabs. The call tabs will allow users to share links on other platforms where they can join the audio or video call with a single tap on the link.
However, some applications like Zoom, FaceTime and Google Met already have the feature “Call Links” in place. But with the call link expected to be rolled out on WhatsApp next week, it will prove to be a game changer concerning how popular WhatsApp is in the world.
In 2018, the company introduced WhatsApp Business, which allowed users to communicate with clients on business-related matters, including portfolios, sharing contacts and selling merchandise.
This year, in May, WhatsApp increased its file upload limit from 100 MB to 2 GB, it also increased group size to a maximum of 512 members.
Further, in May 2022, WhatsApp announced a roll-out plan to allow several group chats to exist in a shared space, getting unified notifications and opening up smaller discussion groups.
In August, WhatsApp allowed users to leave groups silently, however, the administrator of the group is the only one who will be notified when you leave the group, in another way to increase users' privacy.
Additionally, WhatsApp has been testing a number of new features including the ability to search messages by date and edit a message after sending it.
As of 2022, WhatsApp is the most popular global mobile messenger app worldwide with approximately two billion monthly active users, outranking WeChat at 1.2 billion users, and Facebook Messenger at 988 million global users.
