What You Need To Know About Whatsapp Video Calling

There are over a billion WhatsApp users in the world. It is one of the fastest growing social networks. It’s technically an instant messenger though, but new features make it even more powerful. The company introduced WhatsApp voice calling to let users make phone calls over the internet. The new addition this time around is WhatsApp video calling. It was a beta feature until recently, but now it’s officially released for everyone and all platforms.

Video calling is exactly what it is. You call a friend on WhatsApp, and you both can see each other on your smart phone screens just like what Skype has been doing for years.

WhatsApp video calling works across the three major mobile operating systems: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. This makes WhatsApp one of the best smart phone apps for free cross-platform video calls.

Technically, it is free, in the sense that WhatsApp isn’t charging you any money to make the call. However, video calls need internet, so it will be consuming data from your phone’s data plan. If you are using WhatsApp Call over a Wi-Fi connection, your phone’s network carrier (e.g. AT&T, Vodafone, etc.) won’t charge you anything. A quick reminder, you can also check how much data WhatsApp has used.

What You Need To Know About Whatsapp Video Calling

Existing users will need to update their app, while new users can download it. The feature is available on Android right now, and will be rolling out to iOS and Windows Phone. WhatsApp is completely free.

WhatsApp’s video calls are a part of the existing voice calls feature. Placing a video call is pretty simple. You choose the contact you want to talk to, tap the phone icon next to their name, and choose “Video Call” from the dialog that pops up. The other person can answer or reject the call. If they answer, you’re ready to go.

It uses the front-facing camera of your phone by default. This doesn’t include the front-facing “flash” which is one of WhatsApp’s new features you should know about. However, you can switch this to the rear camera at any point with a tap on the screen. It’s seamless and just works.

The microphone can also be muted, so the other person can see you but not hear you. To mute the audio from the speakers, use your phone’s volume buttons.

Anytime you make a video call, WhatsApp does not assume any internet speed. So it will calculate your speed each tie, and adjust the video quality accordingly. This makes a remarkable difference in how good the video looks.

What You Need To Know About Whatsapp Video Calling

WhatsApp Video Calling works fine on 4G, 3G, and 2G networks. The 2G network’s video quality was poor and pixilated, but was still good enough to know what was happening on screen. The lack of lag was refreshing.