WhatsApp has introduced several new features to enhance its video calling experience. The updates should make the calls across devices even bigger and better.
Key Updates
- Screen Sharing with Audio: Users can now share their screens along with audio during video calls, allowing for activities like watching videos together.
- Increased Participant Limit: The participant limit for video calls has been expanded to 32 people across all devices. Previously, the limit was 32 on mobile, 16 on Windows, and 8 on macOS.
- Speaker Spotlight: This feature automatically highlights the active speaker, making them appear first on the screen.
- Meta Low Bitrate (MLow) Codec: This new codec improves call reliability, especially in poor network conditions or on older devices. It offers twice the audio quality of the previous Opus codec while maintaining 10% lower computational complexity.
Comparison with Competitors
- Apple FaceTime: Also supports up to 32 participants.
- Google Meet and Zoom: Allow up to 100 participants even on the basic tier.
Rollout
All these updates, including the MLow codec, will be rolled out to all eligible WhatsApp users over the next few weeks.
