WhatsApp Group Voice and Video Calling Now Rolling Out: Here’s How it Works

Jun. 19, 2018

Announced at the Facebook F8 conference, WhatsApp group calling seems to be a great feature which would let you catch up with multiple friends at the same time. Last month, WhatsAppstarted rolling out voice and video calling for groupsbut limited the feature to only a few users.

Now, the company appears to be rolling the feature out more widely and we were able to test it. As claimed by the company at the F8 keynote, the feature is pretty slick, and here’s a demo of how to get things rolling.

First, you mustmake sure that you’re signed up forWhatsApp Beta. Hard luck if you aren’t because you will have to wait until the feature arrives on the stable build as WhatsApp Beta program on Play Store is already full. Secondly,update the app to the latest version.

To be able to make group voice calls, you mustcall one of the participantsand thentap a button on the top right cornerto add more members in the group call. This will open a page showing all your contacts and you can simplytap on any to invite theminto the call.

Similarly for a group video call, you have to follow the same steps. When you’re inviting a third participant, they will benotified about the existing participantsin the call.

It hastwo caveats, the first is that you canadd only one member at one timeand wait for them to answer, before adding someone else. So you have to repeat the whole process every time you add another member. The second issue is that group calling iscurrently limited to four contactsonly.

Although the group calling feature is limited to Beta users, you can be a part of group call even if you’re using the stable version. However, you will not be able to add new members and that seems fair enough.Icon to add participants disappears when you have four participants

Overall, the functionality is pretty smooth although when you’re on a limited bandwidth, you might have to suffer from poor video quality but that’s great for the beginning. Unlike Facetime, you don’t get the option toadd up to 32 members, but even four is a good start for the world’s most popular messaging app.