
WhatsApp announced on Thursday that it has improved its video calling features for both mobile and desktop users. The key update is the increase in the participant limit for group video calls, which now allows up to 32 people to join a call, up from the previous limit of eight on the desktop app. Add on, users can now share their audio too while sharing the screen with others during a call.
Enhanced Video Calling Features Across Platforms
In a blog post, WhatsApp, owned by Meta, detailed the latest improvements to its screen-sharing feature. Users can now share the audio playing on their device when they share their screen with others on the call.
The update also standardizes the participant limit for video calls across all devices. Previously, up to 32 participants could join a call on mobile, but only eight could join on the desktop. Now, up to 32 people can join call regardless of the device they are using.
A new “speaker spotlight” feature will also be introduced soon. This feature highlights the current speaker during a video call, making it easier to identify who is speaking, especially in large groups.
These new features will be gradually rolled out to users on both mobile and desktop platforms over the next few weeks.
New Audio Codec for Better Call Quality
In addition to the video calling updates, Meta has introduced a new tool to improve call quality. The Meta Low Bitrate (MLow) codec compresses audio and video for efficient internet transfer. Despite the usual decrease in quality with compression, Meta claims that the MLow codec improves audio quality, especially on slow-speed connections, compared to the previous Opus codec. This new codec, already available on other Meta platforms like Instagram and Messenger, is now being implemented on WhatsApp.