Meta has enabled audio and video calling through WhatsApp for Web as of July 2026, letting users place and receive both one-on-one and group calls directly from a browser tab without picking up their phone. The feature set includes screen-sharing, in-call reactions, and a dedicated Calls tab that houses call history and favorites. Group audio and video calls are supported alongside individual calls. WhatsApp Blog TechCrunch

Beyond web calling itself, WhatsApp is rolling out several call-quality and call-management features across its platform. Video calls will begin streaming in high definition within the first few seconds of connection, rather than requiring users to manually switch up from a lower-resolution default. Background noise suppression is being added to calls, bringing WhatsApp in line with features that competitors like Zoom and Google Meet have offered for some time.

On the call-management side, WhatsApp now lets users transfer an active call from one device to another without hanging up. The platform is also introducing waiting rooms for group calls, including a "Require approval to join" option that call creators can enable when generating a call link. That gives call organizers a way to control who joins a group session, something that has been standard in business conferencing tools for years but has been absent from WhatsApp's more informal call model.

Separately, WhatsApp opened up reservations for usernames around June 29, 2026, according to TechCrunch. Usernames let people be contacted without sharing a phone number, a privacy step WhatsApp has been working toward for some time.

The web calling rollout closes a gap that has existed since WhatsApp Web launched. Users could send messages, share media, and manage groups from a desktop browser, but any call required picking up the phone. For a platform with over two billion users, many of whom rely on WhatsApp as a primary communication tool in both personal and small-business contexts, that limitation has been a real friction point. Placing and receiving calls from the same device where you are already reading and typing removes a context switch that, repeated dozens of times per week, adds up.

The feature bundle also reads as a competitive positioning move against the entrenched video-conferencing players, though WhatsApp's architecture and identity model remain fundamentally different. WhatsApp calls are tied to a phone-number-based identity (with usernames now layering on top), use end-to-end encryption by default, and sit inside a messaging app rather than a standalone meeting platform. End-to-end encryption means only the people on the call can see or hear its content, not even WhatsApp itself. The waiting room and approval-to-join features borrow interface patterns from business tools, but WhatsApp's use case is closer to informal group coordination than scheduled corporate meetings.

The HD streaming detail is worth noting from a technical standpoint. Starting a call in HD within the first few seconds means WhatsApp is trying to deliver sharp video quickly, rather than starting at low quality and waiting to confirm the connection can handle more. For users on slow or unstable internet connections, how that ramp-up behaves will determine whether the feature feels like an upgrade or a source of jitter. The background noise suppression, meanwhile, will need to run on the user's device given WhatsApp's encryption model; the audio processing happens on the phone or computer before encryption, not on a server that could listen in on the raw audio.

The device-to-device call transfer is a small feature with practical weight. A user on a phone call who walks into their office and wants to continue on a larger screen, or who needs to switch from a dying phone to a laptop, can hand off the session without the disruption of ending and re-establishing the call. The mechanism mirrors Apple's Continuity calling and similar handoff features in other ecosystems, but inside WhatsApp's cross-platform model it works across the Android-to-web and iOS-to-web boundaries that those ecosystem-native solutions do not span.

Taken together, these updates push WhatsApp closer to being a general-purpose calling platform rather than a supplementary phone-call alternative. The combination of web-based calling, noise suppression, HD video, waiting rooms, and device handoff covers most of the checklist a small team or family would run through when deciding whether to use WhatsApp or switch to a dedicated conferencing tool for a group call. Whether that shifts usage patterns at scale will depend on how reliably the web implementation performs across browsers and network conditions, and on whether the username reservation system matures into a contact model that reduces the phone-number dependency that has defined WhatsApp since its inception.