WhatsApp starts rolling out Push To Talk update

In a bid to keep up with competition, popular mobile messaging service, WhatsApp seems to be rolling out its Push To Talk service. While WhatsApp has not officially launched this feature yet, we are getting reports from users that they can see and use the function from their iPhones. What makes us curious is one of the users claims he received no update to WhatsApp and the feature just appeared on the app.

UPDATE: We have a confirmation from WhatsApp that it is slowly rolling out the feature to users.

Judging by the screenshots shared with BGR India, users will see a mic icon above the keyboard that didn’t exist earlier. In true PTT style, users will have to press the icon to record their voice message and release it to send to the recipient. WhatsApp earlier had a voice note feature buried under the menu from where users could also share photos and videos.

The PTT feature is currently not available to all and it seems to be a limited release at the moment but it seems general availability isn’t far off. We have reached out to WhatsApp to confirm the release schedule. WhatsApp is currently facing competition from new messaging apps from Asia, especially WeChat and Hike. WeChat too has a voice messaging feature, which it aggressively promotes in its television ads.