WhatsApp Has Started Rolling Out a Feature to Send Missed Call Notifications.
They say no one uses phones for calls anymore. That’s not entirely true, though the Phone app may be used less. Instead, many of us have switched to messaging apps for calls. FaceTime, WhatsApp, Messenger—these apps have now become our primary choice for instantly connecting with friends and family. (Not that I’m complaining: the call quality is generally better.)
But one advantage the Phone app—and traditional phone calls—has over these chat apps is voicemail. For decades, when you called someone and they didn’t answer, you could “leave a message after the tone.” This way, when someone saw you missed a call, they didn’t have to guess what you were going to say. If it was important, they’d know and call back. If not, they could call back at their convenience.
Voicemail isn’t dead: you can still leave such messages by calling someone the old-fashioned way. But since many of us prefer using our favorite messaging apps, we’ve largely lost this practice. It’s been completely replaced by text messages and voice notes: if your call isn’t answered, you can simply send them a message with what you wanted to discuss, or record a voice note for a similar result.
However, some chat apps are trying to bring back voicemail. The first major player to catch my eye was FaceTime: back in 2023, Apple introduced the ability to leave video and audio messages for people who didn’t answer a FaceTime call. It’s a small but logical feature: of course, there are other ways to leave a message. But given phone call history, it’s perfectly reasonable to offer this option immediately after someone misses your call.
How WhatsApp voicemail works
Now WhatsApp is getting on board with this feature. The company began testing the missed call notification feature in August and fully launched it on Thursday. Now, if you try to call someone on WhatsApp and the call is missed, you have the option to leave a video or audio message, depending on the type of call you initiated.
Again, these features can be activated within the app itself: you can simply record a video of what you want to say and send it to the recipient, or record an audio message asking for a call back. This built-in option isn’t just convenient; it sets voice messages as the default for missed calls in WhatsApp.
Interestingly, WhatsApp claims this new feature will “make voice messages a thing of the past.” In their view, it actually keeps them accessible.