Meta-owned popular messaging platform, WhatsApp has updated its group voice calls experience on both Android and iOS.
The update brings features to let users mute any other participants or message one of them while staying active on the call. The update also introduces the option to let users message a specific participant while on the call.
“The new update comes just days after WhatsApp expanded group voice calls to up to 32 people from the earlier eight-participant limit,” as per the reports.
The instant messaging app introduced a new interface to support the expanded list of participants in group voice calls.
According to the company, “To get the option to mute or message a participant on the call, you need to press and hold the name card of that participant. A pop-up menu will appear with the given options.”
The ability to mute someone on call is particularly helpful in case someone forgets to mute themselves. “However, it could also be misused to intentionally make a participant silent during a call. The participant, though, can unmute themselves at any point of time by hitting the Unmute button,” as per the reports.
In addition to the options to mute and message participants in group voice calls, WhatsApp has added an indicator to inform participants when more people join large calls.
Last year, WhatsApp updated its joinable calls feature, which allows users to join an ongoing group video directly from the group chat window. The name of the group will now be displayed instead of the names of the members in group call alerts, as part of the upgrade.
