It is not. Techies have been using apps like Viber, Tango, BBM to make voice phone calls for years — even making local calls within the same city. The result is cheaper data rates versus exorbitant mobile phone rates.
There is no Do Not Disturb or Disable phone calls facility in WhatsApp which could work against the initial intention of WhatsApp which was meant for discrete text messaging. As there is no authorization to become contacts and of course, spammers have latched onto this voice call facility and randomly call numbers. This is currently happening with unsolicited text messages in WhatsApp but now could escalate to voice too. Just so people know Whatsapp calls are not free.
Whilst I was there I received whatsapp calls from someone most nights after my daughter went to bed. I contacted O2 to get a copy of my bill and it looked as if I had made the calls which I definitely did not. When in Dubai I had data roaming switched off and was connected to my daughters wifi provider. This meant I could send whatsapp messages whilst in her appartment but not when I was away from her appartment. Even though I was connected to her wifi when I received the whatsapp calls the data usage was charged to my UK wifi, that is O2.
I contacted O2 when I found out and they were good enough to waive some of the charges but not all of the charges. I then went to the cummunications ombudsman who investigated the problem and even though they got O2 to waive some more of the bill, but not all of the bill, they said the problem of the calls not using my daughters wifi was a problem with whatsapp. I have tried to contact whatsapp, which is owned by facebook, but They are not answering my emails and I do not have a number that I can ring them on.
But if you are outside the EU you do not have this protection so if you answer a call from someone and you suspect it is an international whatsapp call do not answer it because the costs are prohibitive. Facebook said Thursday it will start charging for some of its WhatsApp for Business services. It's a way for the encrypted messaging platform to generate meaningful revenue from WhatsApp.
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