A new range of Whatsapp updates has made the popular messaging service, especially their new voice calling feature, easier and better than ever to operate. These new updates will initially only launch on Android (not yet released on Google Play). You can however get a hold of the updates in advance by manually downloading the APK file and installing it yourself.
As for the updates themselves, the ability to use WhatsApp to make and receive phone calls has been given a new option that lets you lower the amount of data used when making voice calls. This is handy if you’re mobile phone contract offers a limited amount of data each month. It should also help out in areas with limited mobile data coverage. Analysts say that whilst using the Low Data mode that there was little in the way of noticeable drops in sound quality, so it looks like it’s a perfectly viable option.
Other Whatsapp updates introduces custom notifications settings that allows the user to mute chats for eight hours, one week or a year, as well as allowing you to customise when popup notifications appear. You can now also tap and hold conversations and mark them as unread (much like an email service that enables you to come back to the conversation later). You can alos backup chats to Google Drive, though the feature isn’t yet fully implemented.
The update will be available on Google Play soon, but there hasn’t been any indication of when the iOS update (and other platforms) will appear. We don’t think it will be too long…
Update: We have tested the voice service across a range of devices and networks. Interestingly, the performance of the voice calls in South Africa varies wildly. We’re not entirely sure if this is due to WhatsApp or the networks, as we’ve experienced different performance with the same networks over time. If you would like us to test this fully, let us know in the comments below.
Source: TechRadar
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