8 participants on group video calls : A few days ago, WhatsApp announced that it will increase the limit of participants in a group video call from four to eight. But now the company has officially rolled out the feature for iPhone users. This means that iPhone users can host video and voice calls for up to eight participants. Earlier, the users were only able to video call four participants at a time.
WhatsApp’s latest update for iOS users allows 8 participants in a group call and it also comes along with some visual improvements for iOS 13 users including the updated message action menu. iPhone users can go to the App Store and download the latest version of WhatsApp to get the new features. The Android users are yet to get this feature however it is available for Android beta users.
Talking about the feature, WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook had revealed both the voice and video calls are secured with end-to-end encryption. This means that nobody can listen or see any private conversation, not even WhatsApp.
The release on the App Store for the latest WhatsApp iOS update reads that once the user updates the app, it will bring compatibility for the new video call feature.
“More than 700 million daily actives use WhatsApp and Messenger for calling. In many countries, calling has doubled since the Covid-19 outbreak began, wrote Zuckerberg. “To help you stay connected with your whole family and groups of friends, we’re doubling the number of people who can participate in a group video call from 4 to 8 on WhatsApp.”
WhatsApp launches the group call feature at a time when the entire world is under lockdown and the dependability on video calling platforms has increased. The ongoing pandemic has proved to be beneficial for many emerging videos calling platforms like Zoom, Houseparty etc.
However, soon after Zoom shot to instant fame, a host of security flaws were earthed by tech experts. Zoom took up many measures to improve its privacy policies but ended up getting banned by some of the top tech companies and some of the governments. However, despite the flawed privacy policies, Zoom witnessed an upward trend and its daily active users increased from 200 to 300 million users in April. But now that we officially have WhatsApp’s video calling feature, Zoom might face a huge competition from the messaging app.
