WhatsApp is introducing one to one calling for users on desktop.
“We’re excited to announce that private and secure one-to-one voice and video calls are now available on WhatsApp’s desktop app,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.
The Facebook-owned messaging platform is introducing support for calls on the desktop app following the “significant increase” in people calling one another on WhatsApp, “often for long conversations”.
The platform last year broke the record for most calls ever made in a single day on New Year’s Eve, with 1.4 billion voice and video calls, it said. WhatsApp last year had also raised the limit of the number of people that can join a group call on the platform to eight.
On desktop, it will now support one on one calls.
“Answering on a bigger screen makes it easier to work with colleagues, see your family more clearly on a bigger canvas, or free up your hands to move around a room while talking,” it said.
“To make desktop calling more useful, we made sure it works seamlessly for both portrait and landscape orientation,” it added.
The call will appear in a resizable standalone window on a user’s computer screen, and is set to be always on top.
“Voice and video calls on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, so WhatsApp can’t hear or see them, whether you call from your phone or your computer,” it added.
Though the messaging platform is currently staring with one-to-one calls on the WhatsApp desktop app and will be expanding this feature to include group voice and video calls in the future, it said.
The feature is currently supported for WhatsApp on desktop users with Windows 10 64-bit version 1903 and newer and for macOS 10.13 and newer versions.