I was about to go on a cruise (Marella Explorer) around the Canary Islands and thought about how I would keep in contact with my elderly mother. I thought about a roaming package from my mobile provider, it wasn’t that expensive, but I find messing with turning roaming on and off a pain. Then I thought “why not just use WhatsApp?”. Installed it on my mothers’ mobile phone, tested it with her and she found it easy to use. I was surprised to find that many people do not know that you can make voice and video calls from the app.

So, if you are new to WhatsApp and have an iPhone or an Android? Then you can make calls for free from anywhere in the world, if you have data left, or are connected to a Wi-Fi network. We are onboard Discovery2 soon in the Caribbean and I will probably use WhatsApp with Wi-Fi in the ports or bars where I can access it for free. On seadays, if I need to call anybody, I will use ships Wi-Fi which is £8 a day.

Too make calls, open the app:

• Android: Tap the “calls” tab at the top of the app next to “Chats” and “Contacts”, and tap the phone icon, select a contact and call.
• iPhone: You call list can be found by tapping “Recent” at the bottom of the screen next to Contacts. Or tap contacts, pick the person you want to call and tap the phone icon.

If you do not see the phone icons, then your app needs updating.