A WhatsApp video call happens inside WhatsApp, phone to phone, and it stays there. Spun does not place that call, cannot join it, and does not try to. What Spun adds is a second calling layer that runs in the browser, in the same window as your inbox, so a conversation can become a face to face call without anyone changing app or hunting for a meeting link.
This page explains what that layer actually is: a direct one to one call between two people signed in to Spun, and a group room that anyone can join from a link you paste into a chat. It also covers what the calls deliberately do not do.
Two kinds of call, built differently on purpose
Spun has two calling paths, and knowing which one you are in explains almost everything about how a call behaves.
- One to one, between two Spun accounts. The audio and video travel directly between the two browsers. Nothing is recorded and nothing is stored.
- Group rooms, for three or more people or for anyone joining from a link. These run through a media server, which is what makes screen sharing, recording and in-call chat possible.
A Spun video call and a WhatsApp video call are not the same thing
The distinction matters, because the two solve different problems. A WhatsApp video call reaches someone through the app already on their phone, with no link to send and nothing to install. It is the right tool when the person you want is a customer who only knows you as a WhatsApp number, and it stays entirely inside WhatsApp: Spun neither places nor receives it.
A Spun call reaches someone through the browser. For teammates that is the better trade, because the call opens beside the conversation you were already reading, with everyone signed in as themselves. For a customer, the bridge is the group-call guest link: start a group call, copy the link, and send it in their WhatsApp thread. They tap it, type a display name, and they are in, with no account and no download.
| A Spun call | A WhatsApp video call | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it happens | In the browser, beside the conversation you were reading | In the WhatsApp app on a phone |
| Who places it | Spun | WhatsApp. Spun neither places nor receives one. |
| Joining without an account | Yes, with a group guest link and a display name | Not needed, they already have WhatsApp |
| People in one call | Two on a direct call, up to 32 in a group room | Set by WhatsApp, not by Spun |
| Screen sharing | Group rooms only | Not available through Spun |
| Recording | Group rooms only, and the host starts and stops it | Not available through Spun |
| Encryption | One to one is end to end. A group room is encrypted in transit, and the media server decrypts in order to forward. | WhatsApp's own end-to-end encryption |
| Best for | Teammates, and any customer you can send a link to | A customer who knows you only as a WhatsApp number |
Every row about Spun was read out of the shipped code before it was written here. The WhatsApp column states boundaries rather than guesses about how WhatsApp works internally.
If what you actually need is a phone call to a customer rather than a video call, that is a separate feature: click to call from the chat header, provided by the Phone Calls extension.
Related: How Spun connects to your WhatsApp number · WhatsApp Web for business: the complete guide
One to one: a direct call with nothing in the middle
When two Spun users call each other, the browsers negotiate a direct connection and the media flows between them, encrypted with DTLS-SRTP. Spun carries the signalling that gets the call set up, then steps out of the media path. Nothing is written to disk: there is no recording, no transcript and no stored stream for a one to one call. When a direct route cannot be established, the media falls back to a relay, which still only ever sees encrypted packets.
The controls are the ones you expect: mute, camera on and off, a duration timer, and hang up. Two behaviours are worth knowing about because they look like bugs when they are not. If the connection drops mid-call, Spun attempts to rebuild the connection rather than ending the call, so a brief network change usually recovers on its own. And if the link stays poor for more than about five seconds, Spun turns your outgoing video off by itself to keep the audio intelligible; turning the camera back on is a click.
Group rooms: screen sharing, recording and guest links
A group call runs through a media server instead of a direct connection, which is what lets more than two people be in the room and what makes the extra features possible. You start one from the sidebar or from a Spun Chat conversation, pick the teammates to ring, and they get a ringing overlay in the app plus a push notification on mobile.
Inside the room you get a video grid with active-speaker highlighting, mic and camera toggles, screen sharing, a chat panel for links and notes that should not interrupt the speaker, and a duration timer.
- Screen sharing: one participant shares at a time, and the grid switches to show it.
- Recording: only the host can start or stop it. Recording is a deliberate, visible action, not a default.
- Guest links: generate a link, send it anywhere, and the person who opens it enters a display name and joins from the browser.
- In-call chat: messages sent during the call, kept with the call rather than in the customer conversation.
Because a group call is routed through a media server, it is encrypted in transit but not end to end: the server necessarily decrypts the streams in order to mix and forward them, and a recording is stored in object storage. A one to one call has neither property. If that distinction matters for a particular conversation, keep it one to one.
How a group room actually behaves
Most of the questions people have about group calls are really questions about who controls what. The answers are specific, so here they are.
- A room holds up to 32 people. That is a cap on the room itself, and it is the same on every plan.
- Ringing is not a notification you might miss. Invitees get a ringing overlay in the app and a push notification on their phone, and declining is a real action rather than a silent timeout.
- Anyone can leave. Only the host can end the call for everybody, so one person dropping off does not close the room on the rest of the group.
- When the last person leaves, the call ends itself and its duration is recorded. Nobody has to remember to close it.
- People can be added after it has started, so a call that turns out to need one more person does not have to be restarted.
- Only the host can start recording, and only the host can stop it. Both halves are host-only on purpose: a participant cannot quietly begin recording, and cannot quietly end somebody else's.
- When a recording finishes, the finished file is attached back to the call, so you find it through the call rather than in a folder somewhere.
- In-call chat stays with the call. Links and notes pasted during a meeting do not end up in a customer conversation.
Starting a group call requires your phone number to be verified. It is a one-off, and it is there so that a call invitation always comes from an account that has proved it is real.
What a guest link is, and what it is not
The guest link is the bridge between Spun and somebody who has no reason to have a Spun account: a customer, a supplier, a candidate. You generate it inside the call, send it however you like, and whoever opens it types a display name and joins from their browser.
Two properties are worth knowing, because both are the sort of thing you would want to ask before pasting a link into a customer chat. The link belongs to one call, not to you and not to your workspace, so once that call has ended, opening it does nothing. And Spun does not keep a copy of the link that could leak, only a one-way hash of it, which is why the link is shown when it is created rather than looked up again later.
A guest joins as a guest. They are in the room and nothing else: no inbox, no conversations, no account.
Calling a WhatsApp contact into a room, step by step
- 1
Start the group call
From the sidebar, or from the Spun Chat conversation with the teammates who should be on it. Ring whoever needs to be there.
- 2
Create the guest link
Generate the invite link from inside the call. It is tied to that call, not to your account.
- 3
Send it in the WhatsApp thread
Paste the link into the customer conversation like any other message. Nothing about their WhatsApp changes.
- 4
They join from the browser
The link opens a join page that asks for a display name and nothing else. No account, no app install.
- 5
Record only if you need to
Start recording as the host, and tell the room. When you stop, the recording is attached to the call.
What the calls will not do
- They cannot place or answer a call inside WhatsApp. WhatsApp calling stays in WhatsApp.
- A one to one call is never recorded. If you need a recording, it has to be a group call, started by the host.
- Screen sharing and in-call chat belong to group rooms. A direct one to one call has neither, and no setting will add them: they are not built into that path at all.
- Only the host can record, and only the host can end the call. Everyone else can leave, and that is the whole of it.
- A guest link stops working when its call ends. It cannot be reused for the next meeting.
- A guest joins the specific call the link was made for. It is not a permanent room address.
- Video quality follows the network. On a weak connection Spun protects the audio first, which means your video may switch itself off.