WhatsApp is one of the essential apps for your phone, having been downloaded more than a billion times. Nevertheless, until recently, when WhatsApp made a significant update, the experience wasn’t as polished if you wanted to use WhatsApp on PC or Mac. Now, you can use WhatsApp without a phone, download it as an app, and even make audio and video calls using the desktop version.
We were pleasantly surprised to learn that using WhatsApp to make voice and video calls does not require utilising a phone. Also, it was really handy to take calls immediately on our laptops since the majority of our calls come in through WhatsApp. To find out how you can do it too, read this post! Let’s examine the prerequisites first.
Voice and Video Calls on WhatsApp Desktop
REQUIREMENTS FOR MAKING WHATSAPP CALLS FROM WINDOWS AND MAC
Here are a few requirements you must fulfill to make end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls on the WhatsApp desktop app.
- The WhatsApp app must be linked to your WhatsApp account on a desktop or Mac.
- A functioning microphone and a webcam.
- Voice and video calling features are supported on Windows 10 64-bit version 1903 and newer and macOS 10.13 and newer.
- The latest version of WhatsApp running on your phone.
- A good and active internet connection.
Before reading the article’s following section, make sure you have all of these sorted. We must first download the WhatsApp app and connect your account to it. This is the procedure.
HOW TO INSTALL AND LINK YOUR WHATSAPP ACCOUNT TO WHATSAPP WINDOWS AND MAC APP
Here’s how to set up WhatsApp on a PC or Mac and connect your account to it. On WhatsApp, you can only link an existing account; you cannot establish a new account.
Step 1: Download the WhatsApp application from Microsoft Store or Mac App Store.
Unfortunately, the voice and video call features are not available if you are using WhatsApp directly from your web browser.
Download WhatsApp for Windows
Download WhatsApp for Mac
Step 2: Open the WhatsApp application on your system. Click on Get Started and access the QR code to scan.
Now, you need your phone that has the WhatsApp account which you want to use.
Step 3: Open WhatsApp on your phone and tap the three dots icon in the top right corner.
Step 4: Tap on Linked devices.
Step 5: Now, tap on ‘Link a Device’.
Step 6: Now, scan the QR code in the WhatsApp app on your PC or Mac.
To connect your WhatsApp account to your device, scan the QR code. Here’s how to solve WhatsApp QR code not loading or working on desktop if you run into any issues while going through this process.
Now that you have logged into WhatsApp on your PC or Mac, let us look at how to make audio calls on WhatsApp.
HOW TO MAKE AUDIO CALLS ON WHATSAPP DESKTOP APP
Step 1: Open the WhatsApp app on your system and open the chat you want to make a call to.
Step 2: Click on the voice call button in the top right corner of the chat.
Step 3: Click on Yes to provide WhatsApp access to your microphone.
The call will now be placed. Here’s how the call screen will look before it is connected.
Step 4: Once the call is connected, it will remain as a pinned window and will work as an overlay on other apps as well.
Step 5: In case you want to change the microphone or speaker, click on the pinned window to expand and click on the three dots icon.
Step 6: Select a new device from the list of available options.
In case your microphone is giving you trouble, check our guides on fixing microphones on Windows and Mac.
This is how using the WhatsApp desktop client, you can make a voice call successfully. Let’s now look at how to use the WhatsApp desktop client to make video calls.
HOW TO MAKE WHATSAPP VIDEO CALLS ON MAC OR WINDOWS LAPTOP
Step 1: Open the WhatsApp app and select the chat that you want to make a video call to.
Step 2: Click on the video call button in the top right corner of the chat.
Step 3: Decide whether to grant WhatsApp access to your webcam. If you haven’t given the microphone access, you might see a similar pop-up box.
We’ll start your video call right away. If you want to use other apps while on a call, the call window will be pinned to the corner of your screen.
Step 5: Expand the video call window with a single click and select the three dots symbol in the toolbar if you want to change your webcam, microphone, or speaker.
Step 6: You will now see options to change the webcam, microphone, and speaker.
You now have it. With the WhatsApp desktop app, this is how voice calls and video calls are made. Here’s how to go from a voice call to a video call while you’re on an audio call, though.
HOW TO SWITCH BETWEEN VOICE AND VIDEO CALLS ON WHATSAPP DESKTOP APP
It is quite easy to transition to a video call if you are already on a voice connection with the WhatsApp desktop client. Simply click the video call icon on the voice call screen to start. By doing this, you will let the other party know that you want to switch to a video call.
When they agree, you can switch on your camera and start the video call.
But what about using the WhatsApp desktop client to receive voice and video calls? Both of them can be received on your laptop, but at first it looked difficult. At first, we discovered that we couldn’t accept calls. It turns out that we hadn’t made the same notifications available.
HOW TO RECIEVE VOICE OR VIDEO CALLS ON WHATSAPP DESKTOP APP
In the system settings of your laptop as well as in the WhatsApp app, you must first enable notifications for WhatsApp. After that, the desktop app will allow you to receive WhatsApp voice and video calls.
We’ve used our Windows computer to show you how to turn on notifications. You can look at our tutorial to turning on app notifications on Mac if you use a Mac.
Step 1: Open the Settings app on your PC and click on System > Notifications.
Step 2: Turn on the toggle for Notifications and ensure you have turned on the toggle for WhatsApp as well.
Step 3: Next, open the WhatsApp app on your system and click on the Settings button in the bottom left corner.
Step 4: Click on the Notifications panel in the sidebar and turn on the toggle for Calls.
Step 5: You will now be able to receive voice or video calls on the WhatsApp desktop app.
That is all there is to know about using the WhatsApp desktop software to make voice and video calls. But, head down to the FAQ section below if you have any additional queries.
FAQS ON WHATSAPP CALLS ON LAPTOP
No. Group calls are not available for the WhatsApp desktop app.
Yes. WhatsApp is free to download and install on Windows and Mac.
You can refer to our guides that’ll help you fix WhatsApp calls not working on Windows and Mac.
MAKE WHATSAPP CALLS WITHOUT YOUR PHONE
We wish you luck in using the WhatsApp desktop app to make smooth voice and video calls after reading this article. The WhatsApp app appears to be in active development, and the most recent updates introduced a number of brand-new capabilities. The ability to use WhatsApp on two phones, which was one of the most anticipated additions, was also just introduced.
We hope this pattern continues so we may use WhatsApp in even more inventive and useful ways! You might also want to find out how to lock WhatsApp on a mobile device using Face ID or a fingerprint.