WhatsApp now supports group video calls with up to eight people

Not too long ago, Facebook announced “Messenger Rooms“, a brand new way for folks to enjoy group video calls with the social network.

At the time, information was pretty thin. We know the service supports up to eight people at once, and that it was essentially baked into Facebook and Facebook Messenger. In addition, Messenger Rooms will also be supported by WhatsApp and Instagram, too, making it quick and easy to join a group video call from basically any of Facebook’s apps/services. At some point in the future Messenger Rooms will support up to 50 people at the same time, but that update won’t arrive for weeks.

And now it looks like WhatsApp has been updated to support group video calls, too. With the latest update, WhatsApp has been brought to version 2.20.50 and officially supports group video calls with up to eight people. And the video calls are encrypted, something that Facebook’s new Messenger Rooms does not have.

Here’s the official changelog:

* Group video and voice calls now support up to 8 participants. All participants need to be on the latest version of WhatsApp.

* Visual improvements for iOS 13 users including updated message action menu.

The update is rolling out today, so it might take some time before all WhatsApp iOS users see the new feature available to use. It’s also worth noting that up until now WhatsApp only supported video calls between two people, so this will probably be a welcomed update for folks all across the globe — at least where the new feature is supported, anyway. The official changelog doesn’t say where the new group video call feature is supported.

Facebook actually announced this feature last week, alongside the reveal of Messenger Rooms. That tweet is just below:

WhatsApp is available to download now for free if you haven’t already.

Are you looking forward to this new feature? Let us know in the comments.