The best instant messaging app, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has introduced new features, it now allows eight (8) participants in group voice and video calls.
Whatsapp messenger has definitely gone a lot of places but in order to make its service useful and accessible in all regions in this pandemic era, the company decided to introduce more amusing features.
Lately, Whatsapp has been adding a series of updates to its messenger, this is to ease the COVID-19 effect on people, allowing its eight users, instead of four to chat in group voice and video calls.
Before the new rollout, Whatsapp limits its video or voice calls to only four users at once, but with the current situation, the company has doubled that figures to eight people at a time.
One thing that video conferencing tools such as Zoom and Skype shares, is a large number of people that they allow taking part in chats. Whatsapp just started a bi competition with these two apps.
It was first spotted by WABetaInfo, which states that the change is now rolling out, and it’s not just for iPhone users both Android users will also be able to chat with more people.
Well, with the new update on Whatapp, the popular messaging app has just turned to VoIP service with group voice calls and video calls. It is the result of increased demand for group video calling.
Whatsapp users can initiate a group call from the ‘Calls’ tab and add participants individually. And it can also be done directly from a group which has more than 4 members, will begin automatically if the user doesn’t specify the contacts to be included.
But as at now, Whatsapp is still at the beginner’s level, with Skype allowing up to 50 people to take part in a group chat, while Zoom supports up to 100 users.
To get started, Android users need to be on version 2.20.133 beta and iOS users need to install version 2.20.50.25 beta from TestFlight. And everyone to take on this chat must be running at least version.
Switch to Calls, then you can easily start a group chat, tap on the call button, and then tap the New group call before selecting who you would like to take part. The feature is rolling out to beta users gradually and might take time for a complete rollout.