On 14 October 2026 WhatsApp started letting anyone join a call, including people who do not have a WhatsApp account. Someone with an account creates a link in the Calls tab and sends it; the person who receives it opens that link in a computer browser, types a name and waits for the host to let them in. These are voice and video calls, one to one or in groups of up to 32 people, with no time limit and end-to-end encryption, according to the announcement.
If you run your work through WhatsApp, this removes an old piece of friction. The client who never installed WhatsApp, the lawyer on the other side, the supplier abroad: until last week, a video call with any of them meant opening a second tool and teaching someone how to use it while the clock ran.
This article is part of our WhatsApp news series: what Meta ships, with a date and a source, kept apart from what is still rumor.
How to create the call link
The steps WhatsApp describes in its official announcement are short:
- Open the Calls tab in WhatsApp.
- Tap the plus icon.
- Create the call link.
- Send that link wherever it makes sense: email, the chat itself, a meeting invitation.
On the other side, the guest opens the link in a computer browser, writes the name other people will see, and sits in a waiting room. The call only starts for them once the host approves. No app to download, no account to create, no phone number to hand over.
One rule gets lost behind the headline and it changes how you plan: creating the link still belongs to people with an account. WhatsApp puts it plainly, "only people with a WhatsApp account can create a call link". A guest joins, takes part and leaves. They do not book the next session, they do not invite anyone else, and they cannot start a call on their own.
What a guest can and cannot do
The permission list is short by design. Inside the call, a guest can share their computer screen, raise a hand to ask for the floor, and react with a thumbs up or a heart. Outside of that, they are a visitor: the host approves the entry and can remove the guest at any moment.
| Item | How it works | Detail that matters |
|---|---|---|
| Creating the link | Only people with a WhatsApp account | A guest cannot start or reschedule a call |
| Joining | Through a computer browser, by typing a name | They wait in a waiting room until the host admits them |
| Size and length | One to one or group calls with up to 32 people, no time limit | Voice and video, end-to-end encrypted |
| During the call | Screen sharing, raise hand, reactions | The announced reactions are a thumbs up and a heart |
| What a guest cannot do | See other participants' phone numbers, send messages or add people | The host can remove a guest whenever they want |
What about WhatsApp Business?
This came up in every support team chat this week, and the honest answer is that Meta did not answer it. The announcement talks about WhatsApp, describes the path through the Calls tab, and does not separate the personal app from WhatsApp Business. The company did not write that it works on a business number, and did not write that it does not. Business users will find out by opening the Calls tab and looking for the plus icon.
One more thing guest calling is not: a feature of the WhatsApp Business Platform, the API larger companies use with a help desk and per-message billing. The announcement is about the app, about a person opening WhatsApp and creating a link with their thumb.
Where this came from
Guest calling did not appear out of nowhere. On 28 July 2026 WhatsApp brought voice and video calls to the browser with no software to install, already with screen sharing, a Calls tab and a waiting room. On 7 September WABetaInfo showed the guest feature still in development, with no date and no official confirmation. Five weeks later it shipped.
The next piece has a name but no date: Meta says that by the end of 2026 an add-on will let you create a WhatsApp call straight from Google Calendar and Outlook, and that invitees will be able to join with or without an account. Until then, inviting is manual. You create the link and paste it wherever it needs to go.
What changes for people who work in WhatsApp
It shrinks the excuse. A clinic receptionist who needs to agree on a follow-up with a patient's daughter in another city no longer depends on her having WhatsApp: send the link, she opens it on her work computer, she is in. An accountant closing the month with a new client can ask them to share their screen with the spreadsheet, with nothing to install and no account to open anywhere.
In a law firm, the gain is with third parties. Expert witnesses, witnesses and the opposing side are rarely in your contact list, and plenty of them would rather not hand over a number. Guest calling covers exactly that case, because the guest sees nobody's phone number and you do not have to ask for theirs.
A school coordinator books a conversation with the parent who only uses email. An agency talks to the overseas client who never installed the app. In all of these, the usual agreement still holds: the host controls the door, and the waiting room exists for that reason.
It also lowers the cost of starting. A quick meeting that used to need an account somewhere else, an emailed invitation and two minutes of "can you hear me?" now fits in a link pasted into the chat. For a salesperson closing an order late in the afternoon, that is the difference between settling it today and pushing it to Thursday.
There is one detail almost nobody mentions on day one. A call leaves no written record. It ends and it is gone. What stays in WhatsApp is what was sent in the chat before and after, and a good share of that is voice notes. On a computer, that part is still manual work, and that is where ZapVox, a WhatsApp Web extension that transcribes, summarizes and translates voice notes, earns its place.
Where this stops
- Guests join from a computer. WhatsApp talks about opening the link in a computer browser. The announcement does not say a guest can join from a phone.
- No country list and no browser list. The announcement does not say where the feature has landed or which browsers are supported, and Meta published no country-by-country schedule.
- Creating a link needs an account. Guests take part, they do not organize. If your workflow depends on an outsider booking the meeting, this does not solve it.
- The calendar integration is a promise. Google Calendar and Outlook were announced for the end of 2026, with no set date.
- The call does not become text. WhatsApp announced neither transcription nor recording of calls, and ZapVox does not join the call either: it works on the voice notes in the chat, on WhatsApp Web on a computer.
- What holds for our extension. The Free plan has a daily quota; the summary of a whole chat over the last 24 hours belongs to Starter, Pro and the trial; and the audio is sent to a cloud transcription service to become text.
5-day free trial, no card. Transcribe, translate and summarize voice notes on WhatsApp Web.