WhatsApp on Thursday updated its cross-device video calling experience by introducing screen sharing with audio support and a new speaker spotlight feature, while also increasing the limit on the number of participants in a video call to up to 32.
Last August, WhatsApp introduced screen sharing support for video calls, and now the instant messaging app has enhanced that experience by enabling support for sharing audio along with your screen, allowing you to watch videos along with your contacts on a WhatsApp call.
Another important update that WhatsApp has made to video calling is the increased limit, which now allows users to have up to 32 people in a single video call across multiple devices. Prior to this update, WhatsApp had a limit of 32 participants on mobile devices, while Windows and macOS users could have up to 16 and 8 participants respectively.
Image credit: WhatsApp
WhatsApp's expanded support for video calling across devices ties in with Apple's FaceTime, allowing iPhone and iPad users to talk with up to 32 participants on a video call, while Google Meet and Zoom both allow calls with up to 100 participants even on their basic plans.
WhatsApp's latest update also introduces speaker spotlight, which automatically highlights the participant speaking in a video call and makes them appear first on the screen.
Additionally, Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, has introduced the Meta Low Bitrate (MLow) codec to WhatsApp to improve call reliability even when users have poor network connections or older devices. This is a significant upgrade over Opus, the open-source codec that Meta previously deployed across its real-time communications products. This proprietary codec is rated to deliver twice the audio quality of Opus, while maintaining 10% lower computational complexity than the open-source codec.
MLow is already available for calling on Instagram and Messenger, and is also rolling out on WhatsApp to power the calling experience across the Meta platform.
WhatsApp, alongside MLow, will roll out its latest calling-related updates to all eligible users over the next few weeks, it announced in a blog post.