WhatsApp’s desktop app now has video and voice calls

WhatsApp’s desktop app for Mac and PC is preparing voice and video calling this week, the company announced, offering end-to-end encrypted calls to other WhatsApp users on both computers and mobile devices.

Voice and video calling isn’t a unique idea for WhatsApp: the mobile apps for Android and iOS already offer the feature, and WhatsApp started to roll out the desktop calling feature to a small group of users at the end of last year. But today’s launch means that the feature is now available to all WhatsApp users on desktop, beginning calling a major universal feature across all WhatsApp devices.

And like the current video calling feature, the modern desktop calling promises the same end-to-end encryption — meaning that WhatsApp and Facebook can’t see or hear your calls.

The biggest missing feature is that at least to begin, the desktop app will only support one-to-one calling, not group calls. WhatsApp does promise that it’ll be expanding to include support for group voice and video calls down the line, although it hasn’t said when that will be.

The new feature support should come in helpful to millions of people who use WhatsApp’s desktop client every day and have had to use Zoom or Google Meet for one-to-one video calls on desktop partially because of convenience.

To utilise the new video calling feature, you’ll have to set up the WhatsApp desktop app on either Mac or PC, which requires that you already be a WhatsApp user on mobile. Once you’ve established the app on your computer, users will then scan a QR code to log in on the desktop app, after which they’ll be able to use the desktop version of WhatsApp with their usual account.