WhatsApp users spend over two billion minutes on calls each day. On Monday, the Facebook subsidiary announced a new feature that allows voice and video group calls for up to four people.
Like all WhatsApp communication, group calls are end-to-end encrypted.
Group calling will be rolling out to users over the next few days to iOS and Android users. Once you have the feature, here’s how to use it.
1. Open WhatsApp. Navigate to the Home screen and select the “Calls” button.
2. Press the “Call” icon in the top right corner. This will take you to your contacts.
3. Scroll down and select a contact to call. Press their name to call them.
4. Press the “Add Participant” button in the top right corner.
5. Select the third participant. Confirm that you want to add them to the call.
Repeat this process to add a fourth participant and you’ll be ready to have the group call.
Limiting calls to just four people means you can’t use it with large groups of friends and family; in contrast, iOS 12’s FaceTime allows for up to 32 people at once.
In any case, WhatsApp’s new group video calls are rolling out starting today; you’ll want to update the app to the latest version to try it out.