WhatsApp rolls out enhancements to calling feature
The new features are screen sharing with audio, video calls with up to 32 participants, and a speaker spotlight to highlight the current speaker on the screen.
-owned has rolled out updates to enhance its calling feature across various devices. These enhancements, which aim to make calls "bigger" and "better", will be implemented over the next few weeks.
“Since we brought calling to WhatsApp back in 2015, we’ve continued to improve it with the introduction of group calls, video calls, and multi-platform support. Today we have several updates that will make calls across your devices even bigger and better, rolling out over the next few weeks,” said the company, in a blogpost.
The new features include screen sharing with audio, allowing users to share both their screen and audio simultaneously, so that they can watch videos together.
The other update is that video calls can now accommodate up to 32 participants across all devices.
Then the newly added ‘speaker spotlight’ feature automatically highlights and brings the current speaker to the forefront of the screen, making it easier to identify who is talking.
To maintain high-quality audio and video calls, Meta recently introduced MLow (Meta Low Bitrate) codec to enhance call reliability. This tool improves noise and echo cancellation for mobile device calls, making conversations clearer even in noisy environments, according to the company.
Video calls will also benefit from higher resolution for users with a fast internet connection. And even if users have an older device or poor network connectivity, the overall audio quality will be crisper and clearer, said the company.
Edited by Swetha Kannan