WhatsApp Calling: All you need to know

WhatsApp introduced the voice-over-data (VoIP) feature last year and has now finally opened the gates to all users a while back. While most WhatsApp users were craving to have the feature enabled on their smartphones, the developers had limited the usage and activation only to a bunch of users across the world. In order to get the calling feature enabled on your smartphone, you needed to get an invitation from a user who had it enabled. A simple voice call from an activated user to your number could enable your WhatsApp to then make voice calls to your contacts. Once you make a call to another user, he too will get enabled for voice calling and he can then pass on the activation to another user. The chain then goes on.

However, WhatsApp developers had limited the number of activations that could enable users to get on the voice calling mode. The main reason behind this was that with limited users, they could test a load of options with the new feature, before rolling out the final version with complete voice activation. WhatsApp developers were opening the gates to only a bunch of users, either each day or month, and keeping low about the time the servers were enabling the activations.

The developers were testing the WhatsApp voice calling feature for a while with various users, smartphone handset variants, countries and network types. This was in order to check on the data calling capabilities, quality of voice over the data, simultaneous users together, different smartphone devices and operating system versions and lastly, security of the voice over the internet. These tests seem to turn out good results and all tweaks and changes made by the developers to the WhatsApp app are implemented in due time. Hence you will see constant updates to the WhatsApp app on the Google Play Store.

However, since the news was out that WhatsApp voice calling had started up, a lot of users were constantly hunting around to get the feature enabled on their handsets. With requests flooding the online forums and social networking sites, people were asking enabled users to make calls to them so that they too could use the free voice calling feature. But there was a bit of a twist—though users would get calls, not all got activated for voice calling. As web mentioned earlier, developers had limited the number of activations and hence, though you would receive a call on WhatsApp, you still would not get enabled.

Taking advantage of these issues, some scamsters started sending out hoax messages over WhatsApp and other social platforms. The hoax message is a scam, and includes a message that you can get the WhatsApp voice calling feature enabled by simply inviting 10 more friends. All you needed to do is click on the invite-a-friend option and the message would then get forwarded to those 10 friends. After you finish inviting 10 friends, you would then be taken to a website to complete a survey, before the final activation. You need to complete the survey, which included downloading a few apps and subscribing to a few free services. However, after you finish all the necessary steps, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. The message is a complete hoax and the scamster wins in the bargain. He made you click on the survey page, download apps and subscribe to a few services, from which he made some money. On the contrary, he also made you spread the same message to 10 more friends, who in turn, would have passed it on to another 10 each. In this way, he fools each user into gaining a good sum of money. Some reported that the links in the message were malware and phishing websites, which could put your privacy at risk. So if you received such a message, don’t fall for it. Simply delete it and refrain from sharing it further. Also do inform the sender that the message is a hoax. WhatsApp will never invite users to the new feature in such a fashion. For more information on the scam messages, click on the links below:

Read: ' Hey, I am inviting you to try WhatsApp Calling ': Don't click on this message!

Read: WhatsApp Calling: Another fake invite is making its round!

For those who want to enable the WhatsApp feature on your smartphone, you need to have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on your smartphone. Though the latest version of the app is not available on Google Play yet, all you need to do is to download the apk file from the WhatsApp.com website and sideload it to your smartphone. Once you have done so, you will now need an active user to call you and enable your WhatsApp voice calling feature. You may also follow the article by clicking on the link given below:

Read: How to enable WhatsApp Voice Calling for Android

Once you have WhatsApp calling enabled on your smartphone, you must know that there are its ups and downs. Voice calls over WhatsApp is great—the call quality is good, loud and clear. There are no charges to making calls, and you can make voice calls to anyone around the globe, provided they are using WhatsApp. You can save on huge international calling charges by using WhatsApp.

However, some might find themselves disappointed with the new feature. Is not a WhatsApp issue, but a complete problem with the internet speed at your end, and the receiver’s too. If you are trying the voice call over 2G network or slow Wi-Fi network, you will face voice lags and echoes. Delays in the voice are basically due to the slow internet bandwidth you are providing to the calls. The best experience of using WhatsApp calling is by using 4G, 3G or high-speed wireless networks. However, if your friend on the other end uses a slow internet, the issue still remains. So for the best experience, using WhatsApp calling over high-speed internet is highly recommended.

Read: WhatsApp calling: Tests reveal shaky start

Share with us your experiences about the topic. Place your comments below and let us know if you have received fake invitations and what did you do about it. Also if you are using the feature, please do comment on the experience so that users are aware of the issues and problems when they are using the voice calling mode.