WhatsApp Beta adds (and swiftly removes) video calling feature

WhatsApp beta users on Android reported that an update was released on Saturday which enabled video calling. Pressing the call icon gave users the option to choose between a voice or a video call. Unfortunately, the beta feature didn’t last long in the wild and was stripped out of the app with a new update which was released early this morning.

No one from the WhatsApp team has commented on why the beta feature was rolled out and rolled back so quickly, but there were plenty of beta users who did report seeing a “Video Calling is unavailable at this time” error message when trying to use the feature. There are plenty of other messaging services that already feature video calling integration, but integrating video calling into WhatsApp could have a disruptive impact on the competition – it’d effectively solidify its dominance over other messaging services.

Would the addition of video calling to WhatsApp make it a more appealing option for you as a messaging service?