Update-28th April 2020: WhatsApp v2.20.141 web release is now available to download from WhatsApp’s official website and this version now supports up to 8 people in group voice and video calls. Users who are not on WhatsApp beta version are recommended to side load this APK. Similarly, WhatsApp for iOS v2.20.50 has been updated to support up to 8 people in group calls.
Earlier: WhatsApp is hugely popular among users today and the company has been constantly adding new features lately. It transitioned from just being a messaging app to a VoIP service with group voice calls and video calls. Until now, there was a limit of 4 participants in WhatsApp group calls and due to the increased demand for group video calling now, the company is bringing changes to the participants limit in group calls.
Starting today, WhatsApp is increasing the group call (both voice and video) participants limit to 8 and it is live for beta users on Android and iOS. On Android, users need to be on version 2.20.133 beta and on iOS, users need to install the version 2.20.50.25 beta from TestFlight.
Users can initiate a group call directly from a respective group which has more than 4 members and WhatsApp will automatically start the group call if the user doesn’t specify the contacts to be included. Similarly, users can also initiate a group call from the ‘Calls’ tab and add participants individually.
The feature is rolling out to beta users gradually and might take time for a complete rollout. As it has been started rolling out for beta users, we can expect it to make it to the stable version soon as well.