Making an international call from a conventional phone is expensive. Before the arrival of smartphones, if you wanted to talk to a family member or friend abroad, you had no choice but to spend a small fortune on the call and measure the minutes that the call lasted with a dropper.
Nowadays, applications with VoIP technology ( Voice over IP ) allow you to make international calls over the Internet simply using your data connection or a Wi-Fi network. This is much cheaper since the calls are completely free (or “almost free” if you count the rate that you already pay every month to your mobile operator).
How to make a free international call from WhatsApp (Android and iOS)
To make an international call on WhatsApp from an Android phone or iPhone, open a chat with the desired contact and follow these steps.
Note: If you do not have the contact added to your contact list, remember to add the full phone number, including the international calling prefix corresponding to your country.
- Click on the phone-shaped icon that you will see in the upper right corner of the screen. If you prefer to make a video call, click on the camera icon that you will see right next to it.
- Next, WhatsApp will display a message that says, “Make a call?” Click on “Call.”
- If this is the first time you call from WhatsApp, you will also see a message requesting authorization to access the phone’s microphone (and the camera, if it is a video call).
- WhatsApp will automatically call the contact. At the bottom of the screen, you will see several icons that will allow you to adjust the volume of the call, mute the microphone or hang up the call.
- Remember, the contact should have WhatsApp installed so that their phone receives the call and you can talk using this method.
International calls through WhatsApp are free, but if you are not connected to a Wi-Fi network or your data rate has been exhausted, your mobile operator may charge you an extra charge for the data consumed during the call. 
How to make a free international call on WhatsApp (PC application)
If you prefer to make that international call from a desktop or laptop, you can also do it using the official WhatsApp application for PC (available for Windows and Mac).
Be careful, we are not referring to the web version of WhatsApp for browsers: the web version of WhatsApp still does not allow calls. To make a call abroad from the WhatsApp application for PC, the procedure is just as simple:
- First of all, make sure you have a microphone and headphones connected to the PC to converse.
- From the WhatsApp application, open a chat with the desired contact.
- Click on the phone icon that you will see in the upper right corner of the chat. If you have a connected webcam, you can also make a video call by clicking on the camera icon.
- WhatsApp will automatically make the call and open a small window from where you can hang up the call, mute the microphone and make other settings (change audio input/output).
