Newly Facebook-Acquired Messaging App WhatsApp To Finally Launch Voice Calling
February 24, 2014
Less than a week after its $19 billion acquisition by Facebook, WhatsApp Messenger has announced another noteworthy development.
Speaking at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, WhatsApp cofounder and CEO Jan Koum announced that voice calling would be arriving soon to the newly acquired, long-popular messaging app.
The Guardian notes:
Koum explained that this is the next stage in the evolution of the WhatsApp service, continuing its mission to connect users and keep people in touch. He also explained that the company had taken the speed and efficiency of text messaging to voice, saying that WhatsApp had the best voice product out there.Voice calling has been a long-overdue feature for WhatsApp, considering that it's long been offered by many of the app's biggest competitors, including Line and, of course, Skype. So, it's about time WhatsApp came up with its very own voice calling capability. According to Koum, voice calling is set to be added to WhatsApp for iOS in the second quarter of this year. In the meantime, you and the rest of WhatsApp's more than 400 million active users would have to make do with the app's voice messaging feature, which was introduced in August last year. WhatsApp Messenger is available in the App Store for free. It's optimized for iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.3 or later. WhatsApp was updated and redesigned for iOS 7 last December.