We have been hearing rumors about WhatsApp’s plan to launch a voice calling service and this was recently confirmed by WhatsApp’s CEO last week, although the bad news is that the service will only be launched in 2015 due to technical hurdles that the developers are currently trying to overcome.
That being said, one of PhoneArena’s readers has sent in a picture of what appears to be a set of icons in the WhatsApp APK. When digging around the APK, a set of icons was discovered which seemed to confirm that the developers are indeed working on a voice calling feature for the app.
The icons in question look like the symbols for the phone, so presumably they are intended for future use. It is also unclear as to how this service will work. Will it be similar to Skype, LINE, and Viber where users can place free VoIP calls, but at the same time be able to dial out to actual numbers by topping up credits?
Given that Facebook now owns WhatsApp, we wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook was looking for alternative ways of monetizing WhatsApp beyond charging users an annual subscription fee, but what say you? Will a voice calling service in WhatsApp be a feature you wouldn’t mind paying for?