WhatsApp group video calls can now have as many as 8 people. That is, instead of the earlier limit of 4 participants. This comes at a time when video chats are becoming the norm for work as well as personal calls, amidst the work from home situation because of the Coronavirus, or COVID. Video conferencing apps are gaining even more popularity as time goes by, and WhatsApp making this update makes it even more versatile in that space. The company also has data to prove that users around the world are using WhatsApp more than before for calls.
“Over the last month, people on average are spending over 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls, well above a typical day before the pandemic. And just like written messages, all those calls are protected with end-to-end encryption. We have built group calling in a way that makes it available for as many users as possible, including people on lower-end devices and slow network conditions,” says the company in an official statement.
For the extended group calling limits to be available, you’ll need to head to the Apple App Store for the iPhones and the Google Play Store for Android phones and download the latest version of the app. You can then proceed to make calls by opening the calls menu in the app and selecting people to join the group voice or video call. Also, if you want to make a call within an existing group on WhatsApp, open the group and then tap the call icon and selecting the people from the group who would be a part of this group call.
Just to put the new limit of 8 participants that WhatsApp has, it is still lesser than 32 participants that Apple FaceTime allows, the 12-person limit that Google Duo now has, Skype which supports 50 participants, Facebook’s recently launched Messenger Rooms which also supports 50 participants in a group call and the very popular Zoom which allows 100 people in a group call for the free tier.
Comments
0 comment