WhatsApp unveils video calling from its biggest market India

New Delhi: Announcing that India now has nearly 160 million monthly active users, instant messaging app WhatsApp launched a video calling feature here which will be rolled out globally to other countries from Tuesday.

The feature will be available on all platforms -- Android, iOS and Windows.

The global launch event was attended by Neeraj Arora, Head of Business, WhatsApp and Manpreet Singh, Product Lead, WhatsApp.

"We are constantly working to improve WhatsApp and expanding the boundaries with focus on quality and we do not look at the competition," Arora told reporters here.

WhatsApp is available in more than 50 different languages around the world and in 10 Indian languages. Nearly 100 million calls are being made on the platform daily worldwide.

To use the video feature, press phone button on your profile and WhatsApp will ask you if you want to make a voice call or a video call. The video calling will be available on the latest version of the app.

With the video calling feature, WhatsApp will now compete with Microsoft-owned Skype and Google's Duo.

"Video calling is one of the most requested features from people in India. We're proud to have the opportunity to launch this feature in India, where we now have 160 million users, and we look forward to seeing people use WhatsApp to talk to their friends and loved ones face to face," said Jan Koum, CEO and Co-Founder, WhatsApp.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp started with messaging and Group Chat six years back and then added voice calling.

"And we did it in a way that works across thousands of device and platform combinations all over the world," the officials said.