WhatsApp Starts Rolling, Out 32-Person Video Calls, Communities With 5K Members Limit

Instant messaging platform WhatsApp's users will be able to connect with up to 32 people simultaneously on voice and video calls, transfer up to 2 GB files and add as many as 5,000 members in a Community, the company said on Thursday. The messaging platform will also be gradually enhancing group size to 1,024 users, from the limit of 512 currently.

"Today, we're launching Communities on WhatsApp. It makes groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels, and more. We're also rolling out polls and 32-person video calling too. All secured by end-to-end encryption so your messages stay private," Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Facebook. Under the community feature, messages that have already been forwarded can be forwarded only to one group at a time, rather than five, which is the forward limit at present.

The phone number of users who are part of a Community will be visible only to Community administrators and others in the same group. "This will help prevent unwanted contact and will also reduce the risk of scraping people's phone numbers," WhatsApp said. The group administrators will be able to delete inappropriate or abusive chats or media for all members of a group.

The company had announced the feature in April and has started rolling them now, which will be gradually available to all users in the next few weeks. The Meta-owned platform is also rolling out in-chat polls and will allow file transfers of up to 2 GB, which was limited to 16 MB earlier.

"WhatsApp is also releasing three more features: the ability to create in-chat polls, 32-person video calling, and groups with up to 1,024 users. Just like emoji reactions, larger file sharing, and admin delete, these features can be used in any group but will be particularly helpful for Communities," the company said.

(PTI)