WhatsApp has upgraded its end-to-end encrypted video call feature, which now allows groups of up to eight participants to chat together, up from the previous limit of four.

Whatsapp GroupCalls Colored
WhatsApp has been gradually developing its group video call capabilities through beta builds, as rival video call services like Zoom, FaceTime and Skype have exploded in popularity amid the ongoing stay-at-home measures. At the same time, Facebook has released Messenger Rooms, enabling up to eight people to join in on a group call.

There are two ways to initiate an encrypted group voice or video call in WhatsApp with up to eight people (that's seven other people including yourself). Just make sure that you and anyone you want to call has updated to version 2.20.50 of WhatsApp, or it won't work.

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The easiest way to initiate a call is to open an active group chat and tap the Video Call or Phone Call button in the top right corner of the screen. If the group has more than eight participants, you'll be asked which contacts you want to call, otherwise the call will initiate automatically.

Alternatively, you can initiate a WhatsApp group call including anyone in your contacts list. Simply follow the steps below.

Launch WhatsApp and select the Calls tab at the bottom of the screen.
Tap the Call icon in the top-right corner.
Select New Group Call at the top of the contact list.
Add up to seven participants by tapping on them in your contacts.
When you've added the participants, tap the Video Call button (the camera icon) or the Audio Call option (the phone icon) to initiate the call.

If any of the participants you chose are using an older version of WhatsApp, you'll be notified and the call won't connect until they've all updated.

Tag: WhatsApp

Top Rated Comments

Kabeyun

85 months ago

Well, nine including Mark Zuckerberg.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Vandam500

85 months ago

FaceTime has a 32 person limit for group chats, end to end encryption, etc. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209022

Why you'd want to use WhatsApp instead of FaceTime is beyond me, unless your friends are Android/Windows only people.

WhatsApp has so many more users world wide that it's not even close. Plus it being cross platform where Facetime is only iOS/Mac is a pretty big deal.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

CarpalMac

85 months ago

Why you'd want to use WhatsApp instead of FaceTime is beyond me, unless your friends are Android/Windows only people.

You wouldn't, but you already answered your own statement.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

MrSimmo

85 months ago

Would be ok if they offered proper multi platform support, 8 people with video on a smartphone isnt great...

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

SgtPepper12

85 months ago

You are wrong

especially Asia or main city like New York , normal people or younger generations would simply pick Apple over any other brand, it doesn’t matter if the nerds and old dudes decided to keep using android and windows , they aren’t and won’t be relevant anyway

for example , Any girls would have had an Apple Watch even just a waitress I met today have one ( most of the people don’t even touch it and use the feature inside it they just buy and wear it like part of the Apple ecosystem)

Teenagers are obsessed with Apple’s iPhone.

A staggering 84 % of U.S. teenagers have an iPhone, according to Piper Jaffray’s latest Taking Stock With Teens survey of more than 5,500 kids. That figure is up from 74% in the fall. Better yet for Apple, 81% of respondents told Piper Jaffray that their next smartphone will be an iPhone, up from 79% in the fall.

Alright, so let's take the teenager number. Now let's pick 8 people randomly. The chance that all those people have an iPhone is 0.84^8 = 24.8%. See, even though the iPhone is so widespread, in a random group of eight teenagers, the chance that at least one of them does not own an iPhone is 75.2% (of course there is a correlation between your choice of phone and your friends' choices of phone because that's how people work unfortunately). For most normal people that is reason enough to switch to an alternative that allows them to include everyone in the conversation, just in case. And once you got used to an alternative and its features, you are unlikely to switch back to FaceTime whenever you can.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

GeoStructural

85 months ago

FaceTime has a 32 person limit for group chats, end to end encryption, etc. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209022

Why you'd want to use WhatsApp instead of FaceTime is beyond me, unless your friends are Android/Windows only people.

WhatsApp has better features than FaceTime, it is multiplatform (iOS/Android/Windows/MacOS, others) and functions are more fluid, it does what iMessage and Facetime do combined and better. It is just catching up in the videocall department because it started as a messaging app. FaceTime just introduced this feature only a while ago, and it debuted with horrible bugs and lawsuits for privacy concerns, there are better contenders out there.

I explain that Apples services are likely more secure, that they have in effect paid a premium to have these services and they look at me blankly.

Lol, no. Apple products are as secure or insecure as any other products out there. Privacy in this era is a myth. For instance, Apple uses Amazon data centers and end-to-end encryption protocols that are very similar (the same?) to what other players in the industry use. And yet they still need to comply with authorities when they are mandated to. They also need to comply with Chinese monitoring practices in order to work there, something that not even evil Google has kneel-down to do.

Apple's software is also buggy, just like any other company out there (Mail, iOS 11, iOS13 come to mind). Anyone could spy on you through FaceTime without you even answering the call:

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/101/2019/01/apples-facetime-privacy-bug-allowed-possible-spying/

Apple also saves personal info of the contact you called like email and phone number for 30 days after you called them "in case you want to call them again)... Not even WhatsApp does that... so pick your poison:

https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/is-apple-facetime-safe-3785750/

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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