WhatsApp has announced the introduction of voice and video calling features to its desktop application.
The Facebook-owned messaging platform disclosed this in a statement issued on Thursday.
According to the company, the initiative was informed by the increase in the number of users leveraging on the platform to make long audio and video calls.
The statement read: “We’re excited to announce that private and secure one-to-one voice and video calls are now available on WhatsApp’s desktop app.
“Throughout the last year we’ve seen significant increases in people calling one another on WhatsApp, often for long conversations.
“Last New Year’s Eve, we broke the record for the most calls ever made in a single day with 1.4 billion voice and video calls.”
It added that the new feature will help people interact on the platform considering its flexibility.
The statement added: “With so many people still apart from their loved ones, and adjusting to new ways of working, we want conversations on WhatsApp to feel as close to in-person as possible, regardless of where you are in the world or the tech you’re using.”
“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.
“To make desktop calling more useful, we made sure it works seamlessly for both portrait and landscape orientation, appears in a resizable standalone window on your computer screen, and is set to be always on top so you never lose your video chats in a browser tab or stack of open windows.”
The development is the latest feature to be introduced by the company which has continued to face backlash following its new controversial policy considered as a threat to people’s privacy.
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