Whatsapp to introduce free call by April this year

WhatsApp Inc., the mobile messaging service that agreed to be
acquired last week by Facebook Inc. for $19 billion, said Monday
that it would offer voice calling as early as April, allowing free
phone calls among WhatsApp’s 465 million users. Jan Koum, the
co-founder and chief executive of WhatsApp, also said during a
speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that he is hoping to
grow the service to one or two billion users. Mr. Koum said that
the WhatsApp voice product would “focus on simplicity” as it has
with its text-based messaging service. He said that WhatsApp
would first release a version of the voice service for Apple Inc.’s
iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android platforms,
followed by services for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone, as
well as some phones by BlackBerry Ltd. and Nokia Corp.
“We want to continue to have that minimalistic approach to the
product,” he said. “We at WhatsApp want to get out of the way
and let people communicate.” Mr. Koum added that the voice
product would “use the least amount of bandwidth, and we optimize
the hell out of it.”
Speaking about the Facebook acquisition announcement earlier this
month, Mr. Koum said that the product wouldn’t change, stressing
that WhatsApp would remain independent. He cited Instagram’s
example, after the acquisition of the photo-sharing service by
Facebook.
Mr. Koum said that WhatsApp was likely valuable to Facebook
because “we both want to make the world more connected,” though
Mr. Koum stressed that WhatsApp wanted to know “as little as
possible” about its users, including details such as a user’s name.
“There are no plans to change anything that we do with the product
today,” he said, using words like “minimalistic,” “utilitarian” and
“uncluttered” to describe his philosophy.

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