WhatsApp takes on Skype, to make voice calls

The move is expected to open up major new markets for the firm Facebook bought for $19bn.It will allow users of the app to make voice calls to contacts in the same way they would send a message.It is expected the feature will work exactly like text or picture messages.Users will be able to use […]

The move is expected to open up major new markets for the firm Facebook bought for $19bn.
It will allow users of the app to make voice calls to contacts in the same way they would send a message.
It is expected the feature will work exactly like text or picture messages.
Users will be able to use either their handset or a bluetooth headset to make calls.
A phone-like page will show calls made and received.
Earlier this month the firm, the firm updated its app to make it harder to avoid WhatsApp messages, or at least claim that you haven’t seen them.
The Facebook-owned app will display two blue ticks in the bottom right-hand corner of an individual message to show that it has been read.
And clicking on the message will show you the precise time the recipient opened and read it.
More information about the features can be found on WhatsApp’s FAQ page.
Before the update, there were only two types of tick – a single grey tick meant the message had been successfully sent, and a double grey tick meant it had been delivered.
Now, when a message has been sent, delivered and read, the double grey tick turns blue.
In a group chat, the second ticks appear when all participants in the group have received the message.
WhatsApp, the global messaging system owned by Facebook, has begun using a new encryption program aimed at protecting users’ conversations from unwanted surveillance and snooping.
The messaging service, which has 600 million users, added the new encryption to its last update for Android smartphones, according to Open Whisper Systems, the San Francisco-based software group.
Privacy advocates say WhatsApp’s decision to incorporate so-called ‘end-to-end’ encryption will help users communicate without the fear of someone reading their messages.
WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum has said he’s deeply committed to user privacy because he grew up in the Soviet Union during the 1980s, when his mother and other adults routinely assumed that authorities eavesdropped on their phone calls.