WhatsApp is a great app for quietly sending text messages and pictures to your friends all over the world. But louder functionalities are coming to the real-time messaging app soon. CEO Jan Koum announced at the Mobile World Congress today that WhatsApp, recently acquired by Facebook for $19 billion, will add voice calling by Q2 of this year, according to TechCrunch.
Voice calling will allow WhatsApp to compete with more text and voice messaging services like Skype, Viber, Line and BBM. Voice will come to Android and iOS first and to Nokia and BlackBerry phones after, and it will be free, according to the Guardian.
Along with this feature announcement Koum updated WhatsApp’s user counts. The service boasts 465 million monthly active users and 330 million daily users, a number 15 million higher than what Facebook announced just last week upon news of the acquisition.
According to TechCrunch, in spite of the acquisition and the addition of voice services, WhatsApp will continue to develop as it has in the past and will continue to use no marketing.
WhatsApp’s first partnership with a mobile carrier will be with Germany’s E-Plus, charging special tariffs to access the app.
Will you use WhatsApp to make calls later this year?
