Ah, WhatsApp! A staple of modern communication and an app that everyone — business or person — can take advantage of. The Meta-owned company has been on an intense update roll in the past months, but it seems like there is no end goal here.
With WhatsApp, it appears as if the aim itself is to offer continuous improvement of the service itself. And no wonder! It’s not like competitors don’t exist and each has their own fans that may have joined for specific needs. So what can one do in that sort of situation?
Why, copy a page of their book, of course! Voice chat is not a new concept at all, but is one that has grown ever popular thanks to services like Discord. As such, it only makes sense for a similar feature to become implemented in WhatsApp too.
Truth be told, this is not set in stone. The entire story stems from a discovery, made by WABetaInfo, whose team has yet again decompiled the latest WhatsApp beta version in search of hidden features. And in the code for the app, traces and UI elements hinting at a voice chat feature have been uncovered.
A screenshot of the voice chat feature as presented by WABetaInfo.
So how is this different from regular calls or voice messages? Well, voice chat basically allows you to drop in and out of a conversation through the tap of a button — in WhatsApp’s case, in the shape of a waveform and located on the top right.
So basically, it’s like a group call, but without having to actually call or have the other party pick up. You just dive in to talk with anyone already on the voice chat and in some cases, the text-chat remains active too. Pretty neat, right?
Presumably, once you’ve joined a group chat, others will get a notification that someone has gone “live”, so that they can follow suit and join the conversation. Otherwise you may end up hanging around all on your lonesome for a while.
From the shared screenshots, we can see that the UI up top extends quite a bit while the voice chat is active, so the WhatsApp devs may intend for something to go up there. A live transcription or a simple waveform maybe?
It looks like the feature is still under development though, so we don’t have any concrete confirmation about when it may see roll out. If you are eager to be among the first users to try it out, you should consider joining the beta group, as it's highly likely that those users will get to experience new features ahead of release.
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Stan, also known as Stako, is a smartphone enthusiast who loves exploring the limits of Android customization. His journey with mobile tech began with the Nokia 5110 and evolved with devices like the BlackBerry 9350 Curve and Samsung Galaxy A4. Despite his love for Android, he holds equal respect for Apple, considering the iPhone 4s as a significant milestone in mobile tech. Stan started his writing career early, contributing to MetalWorld, and harbors a passion for creative writing. Beyond smartphones, he's interested in photography, design, composition, and gaming, often preferring solo projects to hone his objective thinking. He's also an avid student of open-source technology and consoles, with a special fondness for the Pebble Watch, Arduboy, and Playdate.
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