Indians leading in WhatsApp video calling with over 50 million minutes of daily usage

According to the recent data provided by the Facebook-owned popular instant mobile messaging app WhatsApp, Indians has topped the video calling usage by making more than 50 million minutes of video calls daily via the app. It is the highest when compared to the usage in any other part of the globe where WhatsApp handles a total of 340 million video calling minutes.


Acquired by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp has a total of 1.2 billion monthly active users globally out of which there are around 200 million monthly active users from India. The app is made available in 10 Indian languages and more than 50 different languages around the globe. With its instant messaging service it was a direct competitor to Google's Allo, Hike and Viber in India. And after the introduction of the new video calling feature in November last year, it is now pitched against the Microsoft's Skype, Apple's FaceTime and Google Duo app which also offer easy video calling via their platform.

The video calling feature in WhatsApp is designed and optimized to run even on low-end Android smartphones and thus has been kept simple which results in it being running on 2G networks as well. To start a WhatsApp video call on an Android device, the user has to just tap on the separate video calling button on the chat screen and the app connects him/her to the service.


WhatsApp has used its already very popular status in India to gain traction for its new video calling feature which also got a further boost from the rapid growth of the 4G network in India and availability of ultra-affordable data packs from telcos like Reliance Jio. WhatsApp is also constantly updating its app and testing new features via the open beta program and will reportedly bring digital payment services allowing users to send and receive money in a fraction of a second to other app users.

Source: Huffpost