WhatsApp takes fight to Zoom with killer new feature

Zoom and Microsoft Teams have been tearing it up over the past 6 months due to more people than ever before working remotely. However, it looks like WhatsApp is about to muscle in and eat their lunch with some killer new functionality.

That's because, as reported by Android Authority, WhatsApp is shortly bringing voice and video calling support to its desktop and web clients – and, in what must be especially alarming for Zoom and Microsoft Teams, these new features will support group calls, too.

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According to the source of the report, which is WhatsApp tipster-in-chief WABetaInfo, who has accurately called future WhatsApp features numerous times before, WhatsApp is about to enable the ability for users to host video and audio chat and meetings through the software's web and desktop clients.

As can be seen from the above image, the new video/audio call feature works by another smaller window popping up over the chat window showing the caller as well as the ability to answer or reject the call. According to the new information, group voice and video calls are supported, too, and users can continue to type into the chat window while also holding the video or audio call.

These new features are incoming in the soon-to-land WhatsApp 2.2043.7 update, which has yet to receive an official launch date. According to WABetaInfo, though, that launch date could be "soon".

And, naturally, with so many people all around the world already very comfortable with the WhatsApp ecosystem, which is tied nicely to people' contacts from their phones, it only seems like a natural leap for many to host video calls through the WhatsApp Web client.

Here's hoping this leak proves accurate, and WhatsApp users can look forward to making and receiving video/audio calls soon.

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