WhatsApp is considered the largest messaging app in the market. To keep holding to that title, it has to improve its offerings whenever it sees fit.
Since 2018, the messaging app owned by Facebook has supported group audio and video calls. However, users have always been limited to call three other people at a time, meaning that the limit for group calls on WhatsApp was only four people.
Since the novel 'COVID-19' coronavirus has been declared a pandemic, people are urged to stay at home. It's during this moment that stay-at-home users may want to stay connected with friends, family members and colleagues.
With the video-conference app like Zoom experience massive user surge, WhatsApp too wants a piece of the pie.
Here, an update to the WhatsApp beta channel increased its conference limit to up to eight participants.
According to WABetaInfo, the first people using the WhatsApp beta version 2.20.133 on Android and 2.20.50.25 on iOS can take advantage of the increased group size limit.
Users can start such a call by heading to the Calls tab, to then tap on the new call button in the bottom right corner, and choose the group call option. Then the user can add up to seven other participants, adding to a total of eight.
It should be noted that all participants in a chat need to be running that same version.
The beta app is rolling out via a server-side update, meaning that not all beta testers can take the advantage of this increased limit right away.
When the update is finally rolled out to everyone, the increase should help make WhatsApp far more versatile and useful.
But still, it's not on a par with Skype and Zoom.
In the time WhatsApp can boast 8 participants, Skype can allow up to 50 people to take part in a group chat, while Zoom supports up to 100.
It started as rumors that WhatsApp was about to ramp up its game to better compete with others in the market.
And then back in April, WhatsApp was found testing a new feature that allows users to add more than 4 participants in a voice or video call. The test included WhatsApp in adjusting the app's user interface to allow users see more participants.
With this feature, WhatsApp is responding to consumer demand, especially during the pandemic where people are confined indoors. In order to keep its throne as the most popular messaging app, this feature should better propel WhatsApp to be a better alternative to Zoom, Skype and some others.