Last month, WhatsApp increased the participants limit on a video call to eight people and the company is now working on allowing 50 participants on a video call to take on Zoom.
According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp Web will soon allow users to move video calls to the newly announced Messenger Rooms. In case you don"t know, Messenger Rooms works just like Zoom and allows the host to share a link with participants who can join a video call. The feature is currently rolling out to users in phases and will allow users to move WhatsApp group calls to Facebook Messenger in the future.
Today, we shared a new way to feel directly connected with someone over video -- and announced new product updates across @messenger @facebookapp @instagram @whatsapp @facebookgaming and @portalfacebook (🧵) pic.twitter.com/EeVoJMysC6
— Facebook (@Facebook) April 24, 2020
WhatsApp plans to add a Messenger Rooms shortcut to WhatsApp Web, Android and iOS apps. The shortcut will allow the group participants to create a Messenger Room with a custom link that can be shared with others who want to join the call. While users can do this directly from Facebook, the shortcut would allow existing WhatsApp groups to carry the conversations to Messenger without interruptions.
The feature has started rolling out in phases to WhatsApp Beta for Android and will be available for iOS and Web as well. It is not clear if WhatsApp plans to reduce the participant limit on Android and iOS as it will difficult to fit 50 people on a small smartphone screen.