Enhanced Group Calls on WhatsApp: Twice the Participants, Twice the Fun!

During the past few months, WhatsApp has been diligently working on modernizing its calling mechanism. The maximum number of people who may participate in group calls on the app was raised to 15 in July. It represented a major rise from the previous limit of seven. After that, Meta pushed everything a step further by incorporating support for up to 32 participants. Participants could be added to an ongoing call after it had already begun. WhatsApp is developing a feature to start a call with up to 32 participants immediately.

WABetaInfo discovered a few minor changes to WhatsApp’s calls tab in version 2.23.19.16. The call screen has been simplified such that it no longer displays call links; instead, it only displays the names of people you can call. In addition, the floating call button now has a + icon, which may indicate that the call links have been relocated there but there is no confirmation of this change.

When it comes to the maximum number of participants, users were at first only able to add 15 participants to the call. This first restriction gave rise to the 15-person maximum that was implemented in July. During a similar time period, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement that functionality for calls involving up to 32 participants was now in development.

Beta testers with early access to 32-person groups said they couldn’t start a call. Instead, they could only invite a maximum of 15 individuals at the outset. They could only add the remaining 17 participants after the fact. When beginning a call, beta testers will now have the ability to invite a maximum of 32 persons at a time.

This new feature is reflected in the call tab, which has been modified to reflect the change and now prompts users to select up to 32 persons rather than 15. If you were unable to sign up for the Google Play beta program and would still like to use the APK, you can do so by downloading it instead. The new update is being distributed through the Google Play beta program. Currently, only the beta version can start calls with up to 32 participants. However, WABetaInfo claims that more users will soon have access to this feature.

The availability of this feature beyond the beta channel remains uncertain. There exists a possibility of its removal prior to integration into the stable release cycle. Although the number of participants in a single call may appear substantial. WhatsApp is widely used by businesses, families, and schools for simultaneous communication. Multi-person calls are often utilized in the service, making this type of enhancement highly necessary. This feature was essential for Meta to compete with business-oriented communication platforms like Slack and Zoom.

Check out: WhatsApp Channels Feature Rolls Out Widely To 150 Countries