Earlier this year, WhatsApp announced plans to bring group voice and video calling to its messaging platform. That feature is now rolling out to WhatsApp for Android and WhatsApp for iOS, with support for up to four people on the same call.
To start a group call, users first begin a regular one-on-one voice or video call. From there, tapping the add participants button in the top-right corner allows more people to join the conversation.
With more than 1.5 billion users at the time, WhatsApp was already one of the world’s most widely used messaging apps. Adding group calling gave it another way to compete with services like Skype, especially in markets where WhatsApp was already the default communication app.
WhatsApp says users spend more than 2 billion minutes per day on calls. The new group calling feature is end-to-end encrypted and designed to work reliably on lower-bandwidth 2G and 3G networks.
That focus is especially important in countries like India, where WhatsApp had more than 250 million users and many relied heavily on mobile data.
- WhatsApp group voice and video calls support up to four people.
- The feature works on Android and iOS.
- Calls remain end-to-end encrypted.
- WhatsApp says the feature is built to work on slower mobile networks.
The updated version of WhatsApp is rolling out globally and should be available through the App Store and Google Play Store. You can download the latest version using the links below.
Source: AndroidCentral, PhoneArena