WhatsApp Launches Call Links And Is Testing Secure Encrypted Video Calling

Mark Zuckerberg took to Facebook to announce a new WhatsApp feature. WhatsApp call links aim to solve the link-sharing woes of WhatsApp users who couldn’t do so until now. You can now share links for audio and video calls while the call is ongoing. Sharing the link will enable the concerned parties to hop into an ongoing call.

In addition, Zuckerberg also announced via his Facebook post that they are testing securely encrypted video calls for up to 32 users. This could help larger teams jump into video calls without switching to other apps such as Teams and Zoom.

When will WhatsApp call links be made available?

As exciting as it sounds, WhatsApp Call Links is already out of the beta test phase. It is officially launched and will roll out to all the supported regions in the coming weeks. Updating your WhatsApp app via the Play Store or App Store is a good idea if you want to try out this new feature. If there are currently no updates available, be patient and wait a week or more for the developers to release the update.

WhatsApp didn’t make it clear whether you can share links during calls only or can also schedule calls like you can do in Google Meet or Zoom. In the current version, there is no option to schedule and video or audio call. So, it means that you can only share links while a call is ongoing. Zuckerberg promised single-tap access to call, which means you don’t have to give permissions to the user who wants to join with a link.

WhatsApp communities feature also in the testing phase, which gives admins the ability to control multiple groups within one big community. Zuckerberg’s post describes that WhatsApp is testing support for encrypted video calls, which can amass up to 32 people. Yet, it is still behind Zoom, which offers up to 300 users in a single video call. Moreover, it is unconfirmed whether WhatsApp Call Links will allow only other WhatsApp users to join the call with a link or can be used by someone who doesn’t use WhatsApp.