New WhatsApp Begins Broader Roll Out of Group Voice and Video Calling

WhatsApp has begun the broader roll out of group voice and video calling feature for both the Android and iOS users. Earlier this month, WhatsApp rolled out the much-awaited feature to a limited set of Android and iOS users, but now, most of the WhatsApp users have already received it. For Android, the roll out has begun for WhatsApp Beta users, while on the other hand, iOS users on the stable build are already receiving the feature. If you want to check the feature’s availability on your WhatsApp account, update to the latest version via Google Play Store and make a voice/video call to any of your contact and if you spot a new member addition symbol on the top right corner, then the feature is live for you.

WhatsApp currently allows only four persons to join a group call, including yourself, unlike FaceTime which recently received support for group video calling with a maximum of 32 members. The group voice calling is also limited to four people at the moment and you’ve to make a voice call to three people separately, unlike in Hike or Facebook Messenger, which allows you to make a voice call right to every person present in a Hike Group.

Unfortunately for Android users, they’ve to be on the latest Beta version of 2.18.189 and iOS users have to simply update their app from the App Store. We have tested the feature and it worked flawlessly with four people on board. Also, you can invite users who’re yet to receive this feature to join the video/voice call, which makes the feature available to them as well.

Also, both the parties can add a new person to the call, meaning the right of adding a new member to a current call is not limited to the person who initiated the call, which is a good thing. In some platforms with group video calling, only the call initiator will be allowed to add a new person to the group call and that’s underwhelming. Thankfully, WhatsApp doesn’t have any such limitation.

Furthermore, WhatsApp allows users to add only one at a single time and not all the three contacts. If the first person picks up your call, then you can proceed to add the second person. This is a cumbersome process, but it might change in the future.