Sunday evening. Your mother wants to see the grandchildren, your brother is dialling in from another time zone, and your aunt has something to say about the wedding. A call with that many people on it is not something Kunbaa does in this release, and this article will not pretend otherwise. But there is a second kind of family call, and it is most of them: the ten minutes with your dad on a Tuesday, the voice note that turns into a conversation, the call you make right after you find an old photo of your grandmother. This piece is about which app suits which call, with every claim checked against WhatsApp's own help pages and Kunbaa's own product.
The short answer
Use WhatsApp for anything with more than six people on the line. Use Kunbaa for one-to-one voice and video calls with the people in your private family space, when you want the call to sit beside your family tree, your shared memories and your family's events, with no phone numbers and nobody outside the family. For most families the right answer is both.
| Kunbaa | ||
|---|---|---|
| Voice calls | Free, one-to-one and group | Free one-to-one; a group of up to 6 started on Kunbaa Plus or Ultra |
| Video calls | Yes, one-to-one and group | Free one-to-one; a group of up to 6 started on Kunbaa Plus or Ultra |
| Group calls | Up to 32 people | Up to 6 people including you on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra; anyone in the family can join |
| Who can call you | Anyone on WhatsApp with your number, with a setting to silence unknown callers | Only people in your invited family space |
| Phone number needed | Yes. You register with an active phone number | No phone numbers to swap, and no calls to or from the phone network |
| Call encryption | Personal calls are end-to-end encrypted | Call audio is encrypted in transit (DTLS-SRTP); Kunbaa does not claim end-to-end encryption |
| Devices | Phone, tablet and desktop apps | The Kunbaa mobile app (incoming calls ring through CallKit on iPhone) |
| What sits around the call | Your chats, groups and status updates | Your family tree, the family wall and memories, and family events |
| Cost | Free (data charges may apply) | Free on both the free plan and Kunbaa Plus |
Where WhatsApp is the better choice
WhatsApp is stronger at calling, plainly, and it helps to say where. Video: both do one-to-one video calls. Group calls: WhatsApp's Help Center says up to 32 people can join a group voice or video call, and you can share a call link or schedule the call. A Kunbaa group call holds 6 people including you, started on Kunbaa Plus or Ultra. There is no call link and no scheduling. Everyone already has it: your relatives do not need an invite, a new account or a new habit. More devices: WhatsApp calls work from phones, tablets and its desktop apps; Kunbaa calls happen in the mobile app, not on the website. End-to-end encryption: WhatsApp states that personal calls are end-to-end encrypted. Kunbaa does not make that claim. Screening callers: WhatsApp lets you silence calls from unknown numbers, block people and report them.
Where Kunbaa is the better choice
Kunbaa's calling is deliberately small. The difference is where the call lives. A Kunbaa call starts from a direct line with someone in your private family space, the same space that holds the family tree with everyone's place on it, the family wall and memories, and the events you are planning together. You call your uncle about the anniversary dinner from the place where the dinner is being planned. You call your grandmother while the photo you just scanned is sitting on the wall for her to see.
What that looks like day to day
- Only family can ring. Calls stay inside your invited family. There are no phone numbers to swap and no calls to or from the phone network, so a sales call or a stranger cannot reach you through Kunbaa.
- Invite-only, nobody's data sold. Private in Kunbaa means invite-only, no public feed and your family's data never sold. We explain exactly what that does and does not cover in How private is Kunbaa?
- It rings like a phone call. On iPhone, an incoming Kunbaa call rings through CallKit, the same system screen as a normal call.
- One-to-one is free for everyone in the family. One-to-one voice and video calls cost nothing on the free plan, and anyone in the family can join a group call. Starting one, for up to 6 people including you, comes with Kunbaa Plus and Ultra. Otherwise the plan is about keeping what the family shares, not about talking.
- Quiet when you need it. If you mute a relative, their messages and calls no longer reach you. And they are not told.
What Kunbaa calling does not do yet
So nobody is surprised after the invite: Kunbaa calls are voice or video, one-to-one calls are free for everyone; group calls of up to 6 come with Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, and anyone in the family can join one. Both people need the Kunbaa app on their phones. Calls travel over the internet, and some locked-down networks (offices, hotels, some campus Wi-Fi) block the kind of connection real-time calls need, so a call can fail to connect there; switching to mobile data usually fixes it. The calls not connecting guide walks through the checks.
A note on encryption, stated carefully
WhatsApp says personal calls are end-to-end encrypted, which means the content is meant to be readable only by the people on the call. Kunbaa does not claim that. What Kunbaa's call audio does have is the encryption built into WebRTC, the standard real-time calling technology: media is encrypted in transit with DTLS-SRTP, and when a call has to go through Kunbaa's relay server to connect, the relay forwards packets that are already encrypted. If end-to-end encryption is the deciding factor for a particular call, make that call on WhatsApp.
Using both, without the friction
You do not need to move the group chat. Let the day's chatter stay on WhatsApp: the thirty-person group, the forwards, the good-morning messages. What moves is the call: on Kunbaa it comes only from a relative in your family space, so nobody hands out a number, and it starts from their page on the tree, beside the stories and photos with names and dates written next to them. Our Kunbaa vs WhatsApp comparison covers the whole picture beyond calling, and do WhatsApp photos expire? covers the photo side. A small practical point on the WhatsApp side: its chat backups live in your own Google Account or iCloud, so on Android they count toward your Google storage, and restoring on iPhone needs free space in both iCloud and on the phone.
A simple rule for your family
- More than two people, or you want to see faces: WhatsApp.
- A one-to-one voice or video call with someone in your family space: Kunbaa, from their direct line.
- A relative who is wary of sharing their phone number or gets spam calls: Kunbaa, where only invited family can ring.
- A call about something you want to keep. A story, a date, a name for the tree: start it in Kunbaa, then add what you learned to the tree or the wall while it is fresh.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Kunbaa a WhatsApp alternative for family calls?
- For one-to-one voice and video calls inside your family, yes, and for a reason WhatsApp cannot match: only the relatives you invited can ring you, because there is no phone number to hand out. For large group calls, no: WhatsApp carries up to 32 people, and a Kunbaa group call holds 6, started on Kunbaa Plus or Ultra.
- Are Kunbaa calls free?
- Yes. One-to-one voice and video calls are free on the free plan and on Kunbaa Plus. Calls use your internet connection, so mobile data charges from your carrier can apply, as they do for WhatsApp.
- Does Kunbaa have video calls or group calls?
- Both, yes: Kunbaa calls are voice or video, one-to-one calls are free for everyone; group calls of up to 6 come with Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, and anyone in the family can join one. For more than 6 at once, use WhatsApp, which carries 32.
- Do I need a phone number to call family on Kunbaa?
- No. Calls happen between people in your invited family space, so there are no phone numbers to swap, and Kunbaa does not place or receive calls on the phone network.
- Are Kunbaa calls end-to-end encrypted?
- Kunbaa does not claim end-to-end encryption. Call audio is encrypted in transit using DTLS-SRTP, the WebRTC standard, and the relay server forwards packets that are already encrypted. WhatsApp states that its personal calls are end-to-end encrypted.
- Can I call from the Kunbaa website?
- No. Calls are in the Kunbaa mobile app, and both people need the app. The website is where you build the family tree and keep memories, photos and events.
