WhatsApp Voice And Video Calls Can Now Have 8 Participants: Here is How to Use it
It is still lesser than 32 participants that Apple FaceTime allows, the 12-person limit that Google Duo now has, Skype and Facebook Messenger Rooms which supports 50 participants and Zoom that allows 100 people in a group call.
hatsApp 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.
One WhatsApp account on multiple devices: You may soon get this facility
-
The feature allows users to access WhatsApp from different devices without having to log out from the current device
-
WhatsApp hasn’t made any information official about the new feature so we can’t be sure about how many additional devices
WhatsApp has been working on the multi-device support for almost a year and it seems the company is getting closer to the finally introducing the feature (at least in the beta version). As the name suggests, the new feature allows users to access WhatsApp from different devices without having to log out from the current device.
Since the launch of the instant messaging platform, WhatsApp has been limited to usage on a single device. The company later released WhatsApp Web support but the feature is only available when the primary device is connected to the internet and also needs authentication from the device.
​
Recently, WABetaInfo spotted some new changes in the latest beta version of WhatsApp and shared screenshots of the new feature. The website shared a screenshot of the login page on the app. The image shows the app asking the user to log in on a new device.
The app also suggests the user to switch to WiFi since the data usage may be too heavy. There’s no explanation as to why the device needs high-speed internet connection but it probably to sync chat data from the primary device.
WhatsApp hasn’t made any information official about the new feature so we can’t be sure about how many additional devices will this new feature support. However, the support might extend to different form factors including iPads. The report also suggested the official WhatsApp for iPad is under development.
​
Recently, WhatsApp officially announced that the video and audio calls on the app will be support up to eight people, doubling the number from four. The feature stayed in the beta version for short period before being rolled out to the stable version due to the high demand due to lockdowns all over the globe.