The only way to call someone using WhatsApp right now is to search for the contact in your phonebook (or open an existing chat thread) and then click on the call icon. The same is true for group calls. Other popular messaging platforms, such as Telegram and iMessage, offer a link to connect to a call, and you can share it with others for them to connect with you (or a group) instantly. Well, WhatsApp is also rolling out a similar feature now.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced in a new post on Facebook that the company is rolling out ‘Call Links’ on WhatsApp starting this week. You can share this link with other people so that they can join the call instantly by clicking on that link. In his Facebook post, Mark also revealed that the company is working on enabling encrypted group video calls for up to 32 people on WhatsApp. The platform supports group video calls for up to 32 people even now, but these video calls are not encrypted.

We’ve updated the WhatsApp app on our Galaxy S22+ and the Galaxy S21 Ultra to the latest version but didn’t see the new features that were recently announced. Considering that the update will be rolling in a phased manner throughout the week, you might get it at a different time on your Samsung smartphone, depending upon the device and which region you live in.

The company has planned many new features for the app in the future, such as the ability to access your smartphone’s WhatsApp account to your tablet, turn yourself into a sticker, save WhatsApp backup on your phone locally, and create group polls.