WhatsApp is preparing to let people who do not have an account join a call, according to a report by the Turkish technology outlet Webrazzi. If the feature ships as described, it would be the first time the messenger — which for more than a decade has treated a registered phone number as the price of entry — admits a participant into a conversation without one.
The building block already exists. WhatsApp introduced call links in 2022, letting a user share a URL that opens one specific call. But the link was still a shortcut into the app: the person on the other end needed WhatsApp installed and a number registered. The reported change removes that last requirement, so an invited guest joins as a guest, identified by nothing more than the link they were given.
That is a meaningful shift in how WhatsApp thinks about identity. The phone number is not merely an address-book key; it is the signal Meta leans on for spam and abuse controls, for account recovery, and for the 'known contact' assumptions that underpin its reporting tools. Guests who arrive by link bring none of that context with them.
Practical questions follow quickly:
- How does a guest appear in the participant list, and can a host remove or block them mid-call? - Do invite links expire, can they be revoked, and can they simply be forwarded onward? - Does end-to-end encryption cover guests exactly as it covers registered users? - What stops a leaked link from becoming a channel for harassment or spam calls, given that Meta's anti-abuse defences are built largely on number-based reputation?
For users the upside is obvious: family members who do not want to hand over a number, one-off meetings, or a clinic running a group call would no longer need anyone to install the app and register first. For Meta the trade-off is equally clear — easier access means less identity to work with, and identity is what keeps a network of two billion numbers from becoming a network of open rooms.
Details are still thin. Rollout timing, the regions involved, and whether the feature is tied directly to call links were not disclosed. The basis here is Webrazzi's report; we were not able to verify its details independently.
