This change was first observed in the recent beta version of the WhatsApp messenger for iOS and Android, and now parent company Facebook has made it official that we would be seeing such changes soon.
The news was announced by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg via a post on his social media page. “More than 700 million daily activities use WhatsApp and Messenger for calling. In many countries, calling has doubled since the Covid-19 outbreak began. To help you stay connected with your family and groups of friends, we are doubling the number of people who can participate in a group video call from 4 to 8 on WhatsApp.” A tweet from WhatsApp’s head Will Cathcart revealed that Android and iPhone users would begin to see this update on their devices this week, with the next stable version update to the app bringing an increased number of participants on video calls.
— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) April 24, 2020 Zuckerberg also announced that Facebook will receive a number of new features, with the Messenger Rooms launch being top of that list. This will let users communicate with as many as 50 people at the same time. This comes just after WhatsApp introduced a number of new stickers to keep up with the times. With this increase in the number of users on video call sessions, it will be interesting to see what other updates that the company may release in the coming days to help users adjust to the current Covid-19 pandemic. References
