Staying connected is an important part of social distancing which is now made easier with WhatsApp’s new update.
As the world reels under the coronavirus outbreak, it becomes imperative to maintain social distancing and stay at home for your safety and the safety of others. Staying connected is an important part of social distancing which is now made easier with WhatsApp’s new update. The latest update brings the ability to now add 8 participants in a single call.
WhatsApp states, “Video Calling lets you video call your contacts using WhatsApp. On Android, video calling is only available on Android 4.1+. If your phone’s operating system isn’t supported, video calling won’t be available to you.”
Make sure you have a strong Internet connection when placing or receiving video calls. A poor or improperly configured connection might result in poor video and audio quality. If you’re connected to Wi-Fi, your video call quality is dependent on your wireless network signal and network data speed.
To place a video call:
- Open the chat with the contact you want to video call.
- Tap Video call.
Receiving a video call
When someone video calls you, you’ll see an incoming WHATSAPP VIDEO CALL screen, where you can:
- Swipe up to accept.
- Swipe up to decline.
- Swipe up to reply to decline the call with a quick message.
- Switching between video and voice calls
To switch from a video call to a voice call:
- While on the video call, tap Video off, which will notify the contact you’re video calling.
- Once the contact turns their video off, the call will be switched to a voice call.
To switch from a voice call to a video call:
- While on the voice call, tap Video call.
- The contact you’re voice calling will see a request to switch to a video call and can accept or decline the switch.
Making a group video call
Group Calling allows up to four participants to video call with each other using WhatsApp. To make a group video call from a group:
- Go to the group you want to video call.
- Tap Group call.
- Search for or select the contacts you want to add to the call.
- Tap Video Call.
To make a group video call from the Calls tab:
- Go to the Calls tab.
- Tap New call > New group call.
- Search for or select the contacts you want to add to the call.
- Tap Video Call.
To make a group video call from an individual chat:
- Open the chat with one of the contacts you want to video call.
- Tap Video call.
- Once the contact accepts the call, tap Add Participant.
- Search for or select another contact you want to add to the call. If prompted, tap Add.
Make sure you and your contacts have strong Internet connections when placing or receiving group video calls. The quality of the video call will depend on the contact with the weakest connection.
When you receive a group video call, the incoming WhatsApp Video Call screen will show the participants currently on the call, and the first contact listed will be the participant that added you. During a group video call, you have the option to turn your video off by tapping Video off.
You can’t remove a contact during a group video call. The contact would need to hang up their phone to disconnect from the call. Group video call history will appear in the Calls tab. You can tap the call history to view the individual contacts from the call. While it’s possible to be in a group video call with someone you’ve blocked, you can’t add a contact that you’ve blocked to the call or a contact that has blocked you.
