Important Updates from Facebook
WhatsApp, the app company recently bought by Facebook for $19 billion, is a great way to stay in contact when traveling as you can send text messages over Wi-Fi, without incurring fees from your carrier. But today, Facebook made news when it announced a new feature that has already received a lot of buzz, stating that the app would soon allow voice calls.
Coming from Facebook’s developers conference in San Francisco, WhatsApp’s co-founder, Brian Acton, announced the new feature would be coming to iOS users in a few weeks time.
Reportedly, some users have already gained access, despite Acton’s claims of a few sidetracking issues slowing up the new update. Android users have had the update since the beginning of the month.
The update will allow WhatsApp users to use voice calling over the internet for free using Voice Over Internet Protocol or VOIP technology. This means that all the calls made over Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G do not affect minutes. Though international roaming calls do incur extra charges, this could still be an important update for those traveling across boarders using the internet for calls, as international rates can be pricey and calls made over VOIP do not incur fees.
iPhone users could still make VOIP calls using the FaceTime Audio in FaceTime, available on the phone through the iMessage app to other iPhone users, but this update will allow users to make VOIP calls between users with different devices.
This is the first official announcement from WhatsApp or Facebook about the new update. The news comes after WhatsApp became the first app on the android market on the Play Store to reach one billion downloads earlier in the year.
WhatsApp also announced a web extension to its popular service. Although unavailable for iPhone users at this time, the platform allows users to send and receive messages that will be fully synced between the smartphone app and a computer.
WhatsApp Web, as it is to be called, is only available for Android, Windows Phone 8.0 and 8.1, the Nokia S60, the Nokia S40 Single SIM EVO, Blackberry, and BB10 smartphones.
