Instagram is aiming to move past from just being called a place to post pictures and videos as the company is now said to be working on bringing voice and video calling features. According to a report from TechCrunch, the social media giant is on the verge of introducing the calling function as there are multiple references for voice and video calls in the latest Instagram for Android alpha release.
Apart from calls icons, several layouts that mention calls and video calls are found in the Instagram’s Direct standalone app’s Android Application. this news falls in line with the earlier reported video calling function which was found in the navigation bar in the private chat. With the introduction of voice and video call, Instagram has a very good chance of replacing Snapchat. References to video calls have also appeared in the iOS version, according to an image posted by a Twitter user.
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It’s a handy little feature to have to call up friends without having to leave the platform since Instagram is now of the most used application on Android and iOS. On the flip side, we already have tons of applications to make video and voice calls, two of which are already owned by Facebook. Instagram has been pushing improvements and enhancements to already existing features like Stories, Private message privacy, but hasn’t introduced any major features for quite some time.
We hope the new voice and video calling feature will fill the void, but on the other hand, we don’t really have a timeline or when exactly Instagram will roll out these features to the public or will they ever make it to the general audience. Only the company can tell.