Because pretty much everyone who isn’t from the US is on WhatsApp, and voip calls quality is infinitely better than normal voice calls.
I either use FaceTime or WhatsApp.
I either use FaceTime or WhatsApp.
Back home 5g signal is weak, so my phone does even regular calls over wifi/network, then you are 1:1 with whatsapp or similar apps. No more missed or interrupted calls due to blip in coverage.
Here in Europe I know exactly 0 people who don't have it, even online contact forms of various webs and companies have direct whatsapp contact.
Europe is not homogeneous... I rarely see WhatsApp integration in Switzerland.
But my phone providers support "Call over WiFi", and calls that go through that are crystal clear. But it's curious stuff, if the calls are being routed through my home WiFi (or when I'm on the road: over my data SIM, which is from a different provider), what the hell am I paying them X cents/minute for?
Because they can get away with it. They don't care, they're the phone company and have a monopoly.
With this change, you can finally get similar UX with a third-party app independent of your phone company.
Could imagine that countries like India the majority of buisneses also have an whatsapp account.
Never tried it, but it seems that calling a regular non-account via whatsapp will still work. But routed through watsapp servers. If someone can confirm or deny that, would be cool.
1. Long press on the phone number, but don't tap it otherwise it calls
2. Choose Copy phone number
3. Create a contact
4. Refresh WhatsApp by quitting and reopening
5. Find the contact on WhatsApp and call
If you're calling multiple companies for bookings or quotes, repeat this over and over.
This said, it's good to see that apple is slowly adding things so basic that it's baffling they are not there since years.
so don't downvote me if you're in india and certain countries in sa asia where that is the case but that's not the whole world outside the us