Johannesburg - Instant messaging service WhatsApp now enables users to make cheaper voice calls on the service by actively lowering data usage.
Version 2.12.250 of WhatsApp, which is currently available as a download for Android devices, has an added feature of switching on a ‘low call data setting’.
Users can switch on the setting by navigating to their settings option and selecting the ‘chats and calls’ menu.
In that menu option sits a new setting called ‘low data usage’.
“In my tests, on average, this feature saves around 300kb of data over a 1 minute phone call without degrading the quality of the call,” technology blogger Liron Segev wrote in a post on Tuesday.
“So this isn’t ‘massive saving’ but every bit (any byte) adds up,” he said.
Segev also told Fin24 that users of WhatsApp’s voice services can further lower their data usage by using Wi-Fi networks and the audio note option in WhatsApp.
Other WhatsApp updates
Apart from switching on the low call data setting, WhatsApp has also added other features such as marking chats unread.
This can be done by holding onto a chat and choosing the unread option.
Users can now also choose different skin tone emojis.
The update also has emojis that fit with the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) communities. This means that there are now emojis, for example, depicting lesbian couples holding hands.
WhatsApp is among the world’s biggest instant messaging services with more than 800 million monthly active users.