It has been long anticipated that voice and video calling is coming to WhatsApp, and the company has announced via blog yesterday, July 30 that it is finally happening.
According to WhatsApp, users on the platform spend more than 2 billion minutes on the calls per day. Therefore, this has had to come sooner or later. Worth mentioning as a fact is that its proprietor Facebook introduced the same feature in last December.
WhatsApp’s new feature will let you establish a group call with up to four people at once. All you need to do is start a one-on-one voice or video call, and then tap the new button that says ‘add participant’ in the top right corner. It is that simple!
The company says that group calls, be it voice or video, are ‘always end-to-end encrypted’. Also, the design of the feature lets you experience the calling reliably in different network conditions, and of course from anywhere in the world.
The feature was first noticed by some users back in October 2017 and was officially announced by Facebook at the F8 on May 2018. It is presently being rolled out to Android and iOS.
WhatsApp will face heavy competition from Facebook Messenger which already supports 50 people in one group call. The rivalry list further includes Skype supporting 25 people, Snapchat supporting 16, and FaceTime of Apple with iOS 12 (iOS 12 will launch later this year) supporting 32 participants at once.
In terms of competition, WhatsApp will perhaps want to consider increasing the number of participants in group calls, be it voice or video. Keep on following us to get hold of the development.
