Vodacom has launched the voice calling feature on its 4G/LTE network in South Africa.
The newly enabled feature will allow LTE users enjoy faster dialling, better voice quality, as well as ability to continue browsing the web and use other apps while on a call.
The VoLTE network was turned on last Saturday; April 11, 2015.
As at launch, Vodacom said Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge smartphones are the only VoLTE compatible for now. Though an update is required as the VoLTE service will run on a software update on those compatible devices. The service comes with no additional charge.
“Within the next month, VoLTE functionality will be added to additional devices, and we expect usage will grow rapidly as more and more handset manufacturers include the functionality,” Chief technology officer, Andries Delport said in a report on TechCentral.
Sometimes in September, Vodacom originally demonstrated the VoLTE service but could not launch commercially due to lack of compatible smartphones that could embrace its functionally.
Almost a full year after announcing the plan to add voice-calling feature to its instant messaging app, WhatsApp voice call is finally here. We’ve used it.
But getting the feature activated is not quite straightforward right now. Why WhatsApp have chosen to make it so is anyone’s guess.. The feature is available for only Android at the moment. iOS users will need to be patient.
Here is how to activate WhatsApp calling.
You must have the latest version of WhatsApp running on your device. If you are not sure, check to see if you need an update. Again, WhatsApp calling is available for just Android, so it won’t matter if you’ve got the latest WhatsApp on iOS, BlackBerry or Windows.
But it still works on the 2.11.561
Find a friend who already has the feature active on their phone. This is the hard part.
But sending a cold “Hello, do you have WhatsApp voice-calling active?” to your tech-forward friends might be a good start point.
Have them call you using the feature from inside WhatsApp. Receive the call, and be sure to wait a few seconds before disconnecting. Missed calls don’t count in the WhatsApp VoIP universe.
That’s all.
Welcome to the elite club of Whatsapp voice callers. This is how your WhatsApp UI should look after.
How does WhatsApp charge for calls?
No charge, as far as we can see. The app obviously uses your data to make the calls.
Is this better than other popular VoIP apps? Say, Skype? Or the more recent BBM calling?
We can’t say for sure, for now, but the VoIP over Whatsapp UI is easily the most intuitive.
Can you conference call with WhatsApp?
Not from what we have so far seen.
We were happy to see that you can carry on chatting while a call is ongoing, but it appears that while chats to and from your Whatsapp contacts will appear normally while you talk, texts sent to the person you are currently talking to will not deliver until you hang up. It’s a weird quirk we don’t really understand.
Whatsapp says the feature is still in Beta testing and a report from BGR India in February reported a limited trial – similar to what we have now – activated in India late last month, which had since been truncated. Whatsapp hasn’t issued any comments on how the service has managed to surface again, and hasn’t officially announced the new feature.
We expect a statement from Whatsapp soon and will update accordingly. Until then, whatever you do, don’t download a spam mail going around requesting that you activate the feature by filling out a crushing number of web forms on a seedy website.
