Advertisement

Article

Voice calls coming to WhatsApp in Q2 2014

Voice calls coming to WhatsApp in Q2 2014
Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

  • Updated:

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum has announced at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress that free voice calls will be coming to the service in Q2 of 2014. Voice calls will come to iOS and Android first, with BlackBerry and Nokia following later.

WhatsApp added voice messages last year, so voice calls seem like a natural evolution for the service. It’s also imperative that WhatsApp keeps up with the competition. Other services like Skype, Viber and LINE already offer free voice calls, as well as other features like Stickers and games that WhatsApp lacks.

Mark Zuckerberg has said he doesn’t think ads are the right way to monetize messaging services, echoing Koum’s 2012 statement that it’s better to charge for WhatsApp than include advertisements. What isn’t clear is whether WhatsApp’s new parent will want to use the data of its 450 million users for commercial reasons. Koum has said he dislikes this, but it is central to Facebook and many other free services’ business models. Voice calls are a good development, but users may be put off if the Facebook deal results in changes to the WhatsApp terms of service.

WhatsApp has a huge 465 monthly active users, and 330 million daily users. Since Facebook bought the company, an additional 15 million users have joined the service, which may be part of the reason the service was down for 210 minutes this weekend.

RELATED NEWS:

Jonathan Riggall

Jonathan Riggall

Latest from Jonathan Riggall

Editorial Guidelines