WhatsApp calls with 8 participants is live: Everything you need to know

8 people can do a voice call or a video call from the WhatsApp group

The limit on group voice and video calls have been raised to help people keep in touch with others more easily over this lockdown (Pixabay)

After announcing that WhatsApp group voice calls and video calls would support eight participants instead of four, Facebook has now rolled out the feature. Starting right now, you can make voice and video calls from your WhatsApp Groups with seven other people including yourself.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this feature last week along with a host of other features for Facebook and Messenger. Earlier, WhatsApp could only support a four-member voice call or video call.

(WhatsApp)

(WhatsApp)

The world at large is stuck at home dealing with the Covid-19 lockdown and it has become more important than ever before to keep in touch with friends, family and even colleagues. People have been relying heavily on voice calls and video calls for that purpose.

"Group calling has been particularly useful and our users have asked to connect with more people at once. Starting today, we're doubling the number of participants you can have on a WhatsApp video or voice call from 4 to 8 people at a time," WhatsApp said in a statement.

"Over the last month, people on average are spending over 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls, well above a typical day before the pandemic. And just like written messages, all those calls are protected with end-to-end encryption. We have built group calling in a way that makes it available for as many users as possible, including people on lower-end devices and slow network conditions," WhatsApp added.

This feature is also available on Portal.

To access the new, higher participant limit on WhatsApp calls, all participants in a call need to update to the latest version of WhatsApp available on iPhone or Android.

How to use it:

It works the same way as group video and voice calls. If you're in a WhatsApp group with more than four members you can make a voice or video call by adding up to eight people including yourself.

- Tap on the call icon on top of the group chat to make a group call.

- If the group has more than eight members, you'll have to select the participants.

- You can select all of them if you want, you can also select a couple from the list. Eight is the upper limit, including the person making the call.