WhatsApp group calls slowly rolling out on Android

It’s been a tumultuous time at Facebook over the past three months, but WhatsApp users have reason to celebrate today with the ability to make group calls now rolling out, reported Android Police.

WhatsApp already supports video calls with another person, but the update now allows for audio and video calls with up to four people. Once you are in a call with someone, you can tap the contact icon on the top right and pick who else you want in the call.

If you are on the other side and get a group call invitation, you can see the avatar and either the name or number of other people before you accept. That way, you can decide whether you want to chat with those people or not at that time.

However, support for group chats appears spotty for the moment. Even if you have the latest version of the WhatsApp beta on your Android device, the feature seems to be a server-side rollout rather than dependent on the app version. As such, we do not know when everyone will get group chat support.

Facebook announced WhatsApp group calls during its F8 developer conference, where the messaging service also gained support for stickers, Instagram and Facebook video playback, and group administrator functions. If you are the group admin, you can revoke another participant’s rights and change a group’s subject, icon, and description.

It is not all roses for WhatsApp as co-founder Jan Koum quit the company and left his post as a member of Facebook’s board of directors over an alleged data privacy dispute. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the decision during F8 and pointed out that the messaging service is the largest fully encrypted network in the world.