Join gaming leaders, alongside GamesBeat and Facebook Gaming, for their 2nd Annual GamesBeat & Facebook Gaming Summit | GamesBeat: Into the Metaverse 2 this upcoming January 25-27, 2022. Learn more about the event.
WhatsApp is finally rolling out group video and voice calls to its 1.5 billion users around the world. The news was first teased by parent company Facebook at its annual F8 developers conference in May, but now the feature is ready for prime time.
Above: WhatsApp: Group Video Call
Facebook first introduced group audio calls to its own Messenger app back in April 2016, followed by group video calls later that year. Group video calling has surged in recent years across WhatsApp’s rival messaging apps, while WhatsApp itself only rolled out one-to-one video calling less than two years ago.
But while some of its rivals support up to 200 people in a single group call, WhatsApp is keeping things sensible by letting up to four people at any one time chat on a single call. And you can add new participants to a call while it’s already in progress, something that Facebook Messenger started enabling earlier this year.
Group calls will certainly be a welcomed by WhatsApp’s global users, and if nothing else the company will be glad to focus on its core product features rather than having to fight fake news.
Meanwhile, Apple is also preparing to launch group video calls with the upcoming public release of iOS 12.
VentureBeat
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative technology and transact. Our site delivers essential information on data technologies and strategies to guide you as you lead your organizations. We invite you to become a member of our community, to access:- up-to-date information on the subjects of interest to you
- our newsletters
- gated thought-leader content and discounted access to our prized events, such as Transform 2021: Learn More
- networking features, and more
