WhatsApp has finally rolled out the group video and voice calling for everyone. Piloted in October last year in beta version for select users, WhatsApp group video and voice calling feature allows more than four people at a time, as opposed to two persons previously. Later, Facebook had officially announced this feature for WhatsApp back at its F8 developer conference in May. The feature is now live on both Android and iOS around the globe.
WhatsApp’s group voice and video calling come as a rivalling feature to Skype that has supported the same functionality for quite a while. The Facebook-owned company says that this feature has been designed to work even in the places with spotty Internet connections. This is another way to say that people in the remote locations can make calls to their families and friends without having to worry about how bad Internet connectivity is prevalent.
The voice and video calls made on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, says WhatsApp, which means that whatever is being shared cannot be sneaked into, even by the company. It is worth noting that the chats on WhatsApp support end-to-end encryption. The calls made by you will be logged in the call history tab, next to the chats.
WhatsApp introduced video calls in 2016 while the voice calls have been available on the platform since 2014. The company is now celebrating the milestone and has said that users spend a total of 2 billion minutes per day on the calls. This is harmonious to the user base shared by the company earlier this year. WhatsApp said that it now has 1.5 billion monthly active users.
In order to make the calls, you need to tap either the video call button or the voice call in a group. You cannot add people to an already running call, so you need to create a group first. After everyone joins the group call, you will start seeing the video streams in four squares on the screen, one of which is yours, in case of video calls. In case of voice calls, you will four voice streams that will be tuned into at the same time. If anyone drops, the remaining users will continue to be in the group call.
