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The new video chat function on a PC and a smartphone
Photo: WhatsApp
With a new version of its Windows app, the Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp is introducing a voice and video chat function for PC users on Thursday.
Just like on a smartphone, such calls should also be end-to-end encrypted.
The company also notes in a notice on its blog that the desktop app will answer calls regardless of orientation.
So you can also have video calls with smartphone users who hold their phone vertically instead of rotating it to landscape.
The respective chat then appears in its own window, the size of which can be changed by the user as required.
You will want to use this option especially for chats in portrait format, since mobile phone videos in portrait format only use a very small part of the mostly horizontally oriented PC screen.
With the new function, WhatsApp is in direct competition with a whole range of widely used video chat and video conference solutions such as Zoom, Teams, Skype and FaceTime, which is pre-installed on Apple devices.
Video conferences via WhatsApp are, however, possible with a maximum of eight users, which prevents use by larger groups.
Free - almost always
But calls via WhatsApp - with or without video - are always free.
Depending on the tariff and data volume, mobile users can, as usual, incur indirect costs from the data transferred.
In order to be able to use the desktop app, PC users first need their smartphone on which they use WhatsApp.
With its camera, a QR code generated by the PC app must be read into the WhatsApp app and the user authenticated via facial recognition or fingerprint, provided that the respective smartphone supports such a technology and it is activated.
As is so often the case, users shouldn't expect to be able to try out the new function immediately after it is announced.
According to WhatsApp, the new telephony function will be "rolled out in the course of next week for users with Windows PCs all over the world."
Apple users will wait a little longer.
According to the company, the Mac version will only follow "shortly".
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