Inspired by the stupendous growth of video meeting apps in social distancing times, WhatsApp is building a new feature that will allow more participants, that the current limit of 4, to join group audio and video calls.
Spotted on Thursday by WABetaInfo, a fan website that tracks WhatsApp updates, the latest WhatApp Beta update revealed the company is planning to extend the limit of participants in a voice or video group call.
"WhatsApp, probably due to the concerns for the COVID-19 and the fact that more users are using group calls, has decided to extend that limit to allow calls with more participants," said the report.
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- The company is yet to reveal how many users will finally be able to join the group call when the new calling feature is rolled out globally.
- The changes were spotted in WhatsApp Messenger beta for iOS 2.20.50.23.
- While you're in a call, WhatsApp shows a new header, informing that the call is end-to-end encrypted.
"All participants will have to be on the most recent WhatsApp version for iOS and Android to be able to participate in a bigger group call," the report mentioned.
Late last month, 70 per cent more people participated in group video calls using Facebook Messenger week-over-week, and the amount time spent on those group video calls has doubled globally.
Similarly, voice and video calls on WhatsApp have more than doubled year-over-year in the places most impacted by the virus.
Apple's FaceTime video calling tool supports 32 people while Facebook Messenger can support up to 50 people in a call.
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(Inputs from IANS)
