WhatsApp now lets people with no account join your calls from a link

WhatsApp calls no longer require everyone on them to have WhatsApp. A host can now create a call link, send it by email or text message, and the person on the other end opens it in a computer browser, types a name and joins, with no app to install and no account or phone number to register. For a messenger that Meta says more than three billion people use every month, it removes the usual reason for moving a family call or a job interview to Zoom.

The guest gets most of what a member gets. Meta’s announcement lists one-to-one and group calls of up to 32 people, screen sharing, raised hands and emoji reactions, all protected by the same end-to-end encryption as ordinary WhatsApp calls and, according to Meta, with no time limit. That last point is the real comparison: the free plans of Zoom and Google Meet cut group meetings off after 40 and 60 minutes, the cut-off that forces so many free calls to restart with a fresh link.

Control stays with whoever created the link. Guests land in a waiting room and need the host’s approval before they hear anything, and the host can remove them at any point. Once inside, a guest cannot see the other participants’ phone numbers, cannot send messages and cannot add anyone else to the call. The invitation screen in Meta’s own screenshots carries a plain warning: anyone with the link can join, so share it only with people you trust.

The limits fall on the guest’s side. Only someone with a WhatsApp account can create a link, so outsiders can be let in but can never start anything themselves. Meta describes guests joining from a computer browser and its announcement says nothing about phones, which leaves out a large group of likely invitees: people who live on their smartphones and never installed the app. Meta also did not say whether the feature reaches every country at once. And the link becomes the weak point. Forwarded once to the wrong group chat, it puts a stranger in the waiting room, and the only safeguard is a host who does not tap approve by reflex.

Guest calling builds on browser calling, which Meta added to the web version of WhatsApp earlier this year, as The Verge noted in its report. The new step turns those calls into something a non-user can enter, and it pushes WhatsApp into the space held by meeting apps: interviews, calls with clients, a parent-teacher chat with someone who refuses to install one more app.

Meta announced guest calling on October 14, 2026, and says it is available now. Hosts create a link from the Calls tab by tapping the plus icon. Later this year, WhatsApp plans plugins for Google and Outlook calendars that add a WhatsApp call link to an invitation, and invitees will be able to join with or without an account.

Once those plugins arrive, a WhatsApp call will sit in the same calendar slot as a Zoom or Teams link, and the person receiving it will not need to know, or care, which app sent it.

Tags: meta, Gong Yoo, WhatsApp, Google Meet, messaging apps, video calls