Video calling isn’t new. It’s just that, its real significance is being felt only now. In the wake of a global pandemic, when more and more people are being forced to stay at home to help curb the spread of COVID-19, video calling is your only viable option to stay connected. Of course, you can call and text, but the ability to also see the other side — that’s priceless.
The Novel Coronavirus crisis has led to the rise of relatively new video calling services like Zoom, even as existing platforms are starting to ramp up their products to meet the growing demand. One of the areas that’s particularly witnessing change, is the participant count. More and more users are now flocking to services that would let them video chat with more people. While something like this always made sense for enterprises and businesses, the current scenario means even the average folk now wants to video chat with more than one or two people at once — the more the merrier.
Spurred by popular demand — and growing competition — India’s go-to instant messaging platform is also working on increasing the participant count in video and voice calls. First spotted by WEBetaInfo, WhatsApp’s new public beta for both Android and iOS now lets you video and voice call with up to eight people simultaneously. That’s double its usual count. Here’s how you can video chat with up to eight people on WhatsApp right now:
- The first thing to note is that the feature isn’t out for everyone just yet. It’s limited to the latest beta version of WhatsApp. That’s version 2.20.133 on Android and version 2.20.50.25 on iOS.
- This means that, in order to video call with up to eight people, your WhatsApp must be running version 2.20.133 on Android and version 2.20.50.25 on iOS. Also, the other participants that you’re looking to video and voice call, must also have the same beta version of WhatsApp running on their devices.
- The update is expected to roll out for all users soon which is when everyone will be able to use it without any conditions.
- Once you (and others you’re looking to chat with) have the latest beta version of WhatsApp running on your device, you can video and voice call with up to eight people in two ways. Either you can head over to the Calls tab and manually choose the participants, or you can set up a group (preferably having people you frequently chat with) of eight (or fewer) and start video and voice calling instantly by pressing the call button.
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