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WhatsApp's Next Version To Include VoIP Calls and Recording
An anonymous reader writes that WhatsApp is adding a feature that may elevate it for many users' purposes: VoIP. "Apps like Viber, Skype, Tango and Google Hangout already support VoIP, which allows you to make voice calls over a broadband connection. Beyond WhatsApp's huge pool of over 600 million active users, which will undoubtedly disrupt cell service providers' payment model, what is even more intriguing is the VoIP recording feature. With the exception of third-party add-ons available for Skype, no other VoIP app includes this feature."
Google Voice or Hangouts of whatever its called now allows recording, just press 4.
I guess VoIP has become a meaningless term now.
Is FaceTime also VoIP?
Is clicking on a YouTube video that features dialogue VoIP?
Ask NSA, i think they all do......
By Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman etc. in the same way as Skype is.
I predict screaming from millions of users who find WhatsApp suddenly blocked by their ISPs.
Viber as an app is terrible, I erased it from first my Android, when I used to have one, and then from iPhone. Skype, the peer-to-peer side of it, and well, then being bought by Microsoft, puts me off of it. Nevertheless, it is very instructive to fire a network monitoring app and see it light up with hundreds of connections when skype is opened. I was already using Google Talk for text messages, and Facetime. Now Hangouts seem quite a capable alternative for talking with non-Apple users. What about Tango? Your opinions to?
Most start off with, "This call may be recorded for..." I consider that permission.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
First, what does the image of sexy exposed mud wrestlers below the text of TFA have to do with Whatsapp or VOIP technology?
Second, all Whatsapp is doing is making existing voip recording technology more mainstream and accessible. Anyone with an Atsterisk/FreePBX server can already do this, but of course that server stuff is not as mainstream as the Whatsapp client. Corporate call centers obviously use this technology every day, and use the disclaimer recorded greeting you must first listen to, before your call can advance in the queue. "This call may be monitored for training purposes" At that point, it is a good idea to also start recording the call on your own, and you're certainly free to do so. *IF* Whatsapp extended beyond its walled garden, this tool would give the plebes a means to record the call centers I've just described.
Third, the Whatsapp Corporation shits on their developers, so watch out. But you knew it is part of Facebook now already, so you weren't expecting much.
What's that?
That's sure to kill the current worldwide trend in developing countries, where carriers (specially on pre-paid plans) give "free whatsapp and push notifications from fb, tw, etc"
Also, given whatsapp's security track record it should raise some eyebrows.
Offtopic: I actually went and RFTA (Hello! I'm new here) and found the picture in it rather interesting.
i *had* a low uid, but lost it in my lawn
In Massachusetts, there's laws on the books against wiretapping, which are used to punish audio recording of interactions (even of police!). Video recording (even secretly) of public employees acting in the performance of their duties has been ruled to be legal by the state Supreme Court--but FSM help you if you record audio secretly. However, to get around that, you need merely notify the other party that they're being recorded and having a recording device in plain view is sufficient, though, obviously, making a statement to the effect that is superior in terms of ease of defending it in court.
For years I have started unsolicited calls with "this conversation may be recorded for quality-control". It sure lowers the amount of scam calls you get...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You can chat with Skype. I don't pay to receive calls but I do to call people abroad, so voip is the only sensible solution there. You can get a headset for £5 or less and use (on a desktop) with any client. Whatsapp being phone only is what kills it for me. I don't understand why Facebook didn't announce a fix for that the day they bought them. I don't want to have to chat via a mobile phone keyboard and try and cut and paste links etc into it when i'm setting next to a desktop with a keyboard and a 25" monitor.
It's just that the user doesn't have access to the playback function.
Whatsapp should worry about getting their user interface right first before introducing new features. The new interface update came months after iOS 7 was released, and support for the larger screens of iPhone 6 and 6+ is nowhere to be seen.
It's true that you can chat with Skype but Skype is known as the platform to make calls abroad. But maybe I wouldn't be complaining if you could use 3rd party software, i.e. MSN worked with aMSN, Gaim, Trillian.
"..., which will undoubtedly disrupt cell service providers' payment model"
Service providers already know that there is no future in voice and to count only on data subscriptions moving forward.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
Stickers? I think you are confusing it with Viber.
Assuming windows phone is still around in 2017. Which is a big IF.
The big advantage of the phone-only model is that it keeps Whatsapp nearly spamfree and it prevents conversations where people with complete keyboards outtype me too much and then complain I can't keep up with their typing.
Why do people use WhatsApp when, at least for Android (which runs on ~80% of the world's smartphones), it's an app that requires a $1/year subscription after your first year, and when there are many free services that do the same thing (any instant messaging service) and more (VoIP, video calls), and which have desktop clients (because I'd rather reply from my laptop when I'm already using it anyway)?
I've thus far refused to use WhatsApp because I find it pointless given the free, arguably better alternatives. Am I missing something? Does WhatApp have some killer feature that no other app/service has? What makes it better than, say, Google Hangouts or Viber (which even has a desktop client for Linux). Am I wrong in thinking that WhatsApp's continued popularity is only due to WhatsApp's existing popularity?
www.gaiageek.com
Whatsapp being phone only is what kills it for me.
It's not a bug, it's a feature. It's what allows it to take the place of SMS. If your contact is on WhatsApp and you message them, you know they will get your message on their phone. If you send a message to someone on facebook messenger, they might not get it until they log in to facebook on their computer next week, so unless you know their habits you have to send an SMS if it needs to be timely.
If you send a message to someone on facebook messenger, they might not get it until they log in to facebook on their computer next week
Only if they don't have the Facebook Messenger app or the Facebook app on their phone. And following that logic, they might not have the Whatsapp app on their phone, in which case I guess they'll never get your message.
I don't see how disallowing someone to check their messages except on their cell phone is a "feature".
I don't use this service. If they can kill off the spammy phishing e-mails along with the bogus post office and FedEx ones, I'll be happier.
I'm pretty sure its illegal to record a phone call without the other parties approval in the United States. I wonder if they've taken this into account? Like, when person A initiates recording, does it just record or does it ask for confirmation from person B?
You know when they get it on facebook messenger; it tells you. You have no idea when they get it via sms, or even IF they got it. If their phone is turned off, lost, of they're abroad then the network might try delivering for a few days, then give up.
But sure, you know they'll get it on their phone because the system is too lame to work anywhere else; messenger, hangouts etc lets them receive it on their phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, or anyone else's device they've logged into.