2016 has been an important year in the history of WhatsApp. The company has continued to add features to its messaging offering throughout the year including the ability to change font, send or receive documents and, the all important, end-to-end encryption. The Facebook-owned application has just announced another feature that will be welcomed by its one billion users; video calling. 

The feature will appear within the latest update of the app and will be available on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone devices "in the coming days". Mark Zuckerberg took to his Facebook profile to announce the update, saying this has been "one of our community's top requests".

The update will appear in the various app stores in the coming days. Users will then see the small call icon in the top right corner of a WhatsApp chat Tapping on the "video call" option will start a video chat with that contact. It's possible to alternate between the front and rear camera whilst on the call.

“We’re introducing this feature because we know that sometimes voice and text just aren’t enough. There’s no substitute for watching your grandchild take her first steps, or seeing your daughter’s face while she’s studying abroad. And we want to make these features available to everyone, not just those who can afford the most expensive new phones or live in countries with the best cellular networks,” said WhatsApp in a blog post.

WhatsApp is also in the process of adding two-factor authentication. This will provide an extra layer of security for the messaging service to ensure that only the owner of an account can access the information.