WhatsApp could soon let you answer video calls with your camera off

Summary

• WhatsApp is testing a new feature that will allow users to answer video calls with their camera off, addressing a long-standing privacy concern and aligning the platform with features available on other video conferencing services like Zoom and Google Meet.
• The upcoming feature, discovered in the WhatsApp beta version, will display a "Turn off your video" option during incoming video calls, allowing users to avoid automatic camera activation.
• The feature isn't available to try out yet, and it is unclear when it might land.

Most modern video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet let you mute your mic and turn off your camera before you join a group or one-on-one call, but the same functionality hasn't made its way to popular messaging platforms.

WhatsApp, for example, does not give you the option to toggle your mic and camera off until you answer an incoming video call, though that might soon change.

Related

How to make and share WhatsApp call links

So easy to make, you’ll be oversharing in three taps or less

Posts

In its current implementation, whenever you answer a video call on WhatsApp, the call defaults to your front camera. If you're, for any reason, not interested in showing yourself on camera, you have two main options — decline the call and initiate a voice call or answer the call and then disable the camera.

WhatsApp beta version (2.25.7.3 for Android), as pointed out by Android Authority, reveals a countermeasure — one that will give you the option to answer a video call with your camera off.

Source: Android Authority

For what it's worth, the feature isn't live yet, so downloading the beta won't surface it for you. However, according to the provided screenshots, the app will give you the option to answer video calls with your camera disabled front and center. "Turn off your video," reads the prompt visible under the caller's name and profile picture. Once tapped, the green swipe up to answer button at the bottom changes to "Accept without video" — from "Swipe up to accept."

Users will have the option to re-enable their camera once the video call has been initiated. I think with a privacy-focused feature like this, it's not a matter of it, but when the feature might arrive.

The development comes soon after Google was spotted working on a solution that would allow Google Messages users to video call WhatsApp users without having to leave the Google Messages app.

Related

Starting WhatsApp video calls from Google Messages could soon be a thing

Interoperability? Not in the truest sense

Posts