WhatsApp is finally catching up to FaceTime and adding support for video calls with up to 32 participants. You can also mute or message an individual on a group call.
Up until now, you could use WhatsApp for group voice calls with 32 people. Video calls were limited to 8 people.
And support for Picture-in-Picture is in testing.
WhatsApp is gaining some useful new features
WhatsApp has announced several other improvements to voice and video calling on its platform. The app will show colorful waveforms when a person is on a video call but their camera is off. This will make identifying who is speaking on a group call easier.
Additionally, WhatsApp will display an in-call banner notification whenever a new participant joins a group call. Similar to FaceTime, you can create Call Links in WhatsApp to plan and invite people to group calls.
Lastly, WhatsApp is beta testing support for Picture-in-Picture on iPhone. This will make it possible to continue having video calls on WhatsApp while doing other things on your iPhone.
Currently, if you minimize the app on your iPhone when on a video call, access to the camera is cut off. So, the other person can only hear your audio and won’t be able to see your video feed. When you minimize a FaceTime video call on an iPhone, the video feed will appear on your display in a windowed form that you can move around.
WhatsApp is used for sending billions of messages daily
Outside the US, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform that is used by over a billion people daily to send billions of messages. Despite its popularity, the Meta-owned messaging app has lagged behind FaceTime and iMessage in many areas. Thanks to recent updates though, WhatsApp is finally catching up to its competition.
