X, formerly Twitter, has finally brought the ability to make voice and video calls to its Android app.
Announced back in October and available on iOS 3 months ago, the feature has been elusive on the platform that over 3 billion people rely on for most of their communication and other needs powered by today’s smart devices.
The feature is available on updated X apps on Android devices.
While the feature is now accessible on the platform, its usage is another ball game. Only paying subscribers (those who part with Kshs 2,200 per month, as of the time of publication, to get a blue checkmark among other perks) of the X app can initiate calls. Those who are not X Premium users can only accept calls, if they have the same on the app.
Users have control over who can call them and they can opt to disable calls altogether via a simple toggle in the app’s settings.
Calls (either voice or video) are initiated from the Direct Messages (DM) section.
According to X, here’s how to initiate a call:
- Tap the envelope icon. You’ll be directed to your messages.
- Tap on an existing DM conversation or start a new conversation.
- Tap on the phone icon, from there you can:
- Tap Audio call to start an audio call
- Tap Video call to start a video call
- The account that you call will receive a notification that you’re calling them and if they don’t pick up they’ll get a notification that they missed a call.
More information on the particulars of X voice and video calls can be found on the X help pages.