It's no big secret that WhatsApp turned into an overnight success around the world, riding on the free messaging concept. The intuitive and clutter free interface helped WhatsApp get an edge over its hundred potential competitors.
The simplicity and availability of the app across platforms has made it more successful in the past few months. Adding to the fun, WhatsApp has now introduced a free calling feature. Available on an invitation basis, the feature needs to be activated on your phone through a set procedure.
Once activated, your regular whatsapp window will transform with a split header. Featuring three options, the header will captioned with Calls, Chats and Contacts. You'll get all the WhatsApp call log details once uou click on the 'Calls' tab. The 'Chat' features the regular chat window with all active one-to-one and group chats. The contacts tab will show you all your existing contacts.
How to place a call
To call someone from your existing contacts, just tap on the Contacts tab. Once the chat window is open, click on the dial icon that appears next to the person's name.
If the person has already upgraded his/her WhatsApp to the latest version, he/she will get the call. Otherwise you'll be prompted that "X needs to update the App to receive WhatsApp calls." If the person you're calling doesn't have the calling feature activated yet, you need to carry on your conversation for at least 3 minutes or more. Once the conversation is over the person will get the same WhatsApp window like you have.
Call Quality
The main call window is simple with the person's name appearing on top, profile picture on the middle and four buttons for terminating the call, activating speaker phone, text and for turning off the microphone.
Putting the feature to test, we found a slight delay in transmission of voice. With both phones in 3G network, the delay was for about a second, but with poor network, the delay might increase. However you might not notice it while calling a distant person.
