WhatsApp introduces new group calling limits in Android, iOS beta apps

Up until now, a group couldn’t have more than four participants. But that is being increased to eight participants.

Up until now, a group couldn’t have more than four participants. (REUTERS)

WhatsApp, in the past couple of weeks has rolled out a bunch of new features to help people amid the lockdown enforced in countries across the globe in light of the Covid-19 outbreak. The company, among other things, has also imposed strict limitations on forwarded messages in a bid to contain the spread of misinformation about the virus outbreak. Now, word is that WhatsApp is introducing new group calling limits on its Android and iOS based apps.

Up until now, a group couldn't have more than four participants. But now a new report by WABetaInfo suggests otherwise. On the company's iOS-based app, this limit is being increased to accommodate eight participants. If there are more than eight participants in a group, WhatsApp will ask users, which participants they want to connect to. However, if there are less than eight participants, the app will connect to all the participants at once. To call people in a group, all users need to do is open the group and tap on the call button.

As far as the company's Android based app is concerned, the Facebook-owned messaging app is increasing the group calling limit to five participants. Rest of the functionality remains the same as that of the iOS-based app.

It is worth noting that the new group calling limit is applicable to both, the voice calls and the video calls made using the app. While iPhone users can download iOS beta version 2.20.50.25 iOS from TestFlight, Android smartphone users can download WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.20.132 from Google Play to use the new functionality. That said, the new feature is not available in the main app yet. But with the increased group calling limit coming to beta, an update for the main app shouldn't be far behind.