The Financial Express : Apr 17, 2020, 10:11 PM
Technical: In order to increase its relevance during the lockdown caused by coronavirus pandemic, it seems like WhatsApp is working to allow more than four participants in its video call. The Facebook-run instant messaging app is losing out to apps like Zoom and Google Duo because of their ability to allow a large number of participants to join the video call, especially now that the user base for the feature has increased manifold.The possibility of the feature being introduced by WhatsApp in its official version some time in the future came to the fore after it was tracked by WABetaInfo. The WhatsApp features tracking site shared a list of features introduced in two beta versions of WhatsApp for Android – WhatsApp v2.20.128 beta and WhatsApp v2.20.129 beta. The former beta version of the app was found to have strings which suggested that the group call limit could be extended.However, the feature is not yet enabled and even if the users update their app to the latest version, they will not be able to see the feature. At present, it is not clear how many participants will be able to participate even if the feature is rolled out. Moreover, all the people wanting to connect in the extended limit group call would have to have the updated version of the instant messaging app.At the moment, there is no information on when the feature will be released on its official version.However, WABetaInfo also informed that the beta versions of the app are leading to some issues in the group audio calling feature and if a user often uses this feature, they should not update to these versions.In the WhatsApp v2.20.129 beta version, a new header for calls was rolled out. This header informed the user that the calls, just like WhatsApp messages, are end-to-end encrypted and hence, secure.