While WhatsApp is best known for bringing private and secure messaging to people across the world, more people are using it as a way to connect with voice and video calls. That’s why over the course of this year we’ve launched several improvements to calling on WhatsApp, for catching up with friends and family, colleagues and communities securely.

We’ve introduced new features for better connecting as a group on calls:

• 32-person calls: You can now start a video or voice call on your mobile device with up to 32 people — four times the previous amount.

• Message or mute participants: Long pressing on a participant will enlarge the video or audio feed and allow you to either mute or message them separately, while keeping the calls going.

• Call links: Whether you’re making a last-minute call or planning one ahead, you can easily invite people to a group call by sharing a call link.

We’ve also made functional changes for a more seamless calling experience:

• Colorful waveforms: Now, you can easily see who is speaking if their camera is off.
• In-call banner notifications: See when someone new joins a group call.
• Picture in Picture on iOS: Now in beta testing and rolling out in 2023, easily multitask while on a call thanks to a minimized in-call video screen.

As always, all calls on WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted by default to protect people’s privacy and safety. We’ll keep making improvements to calling next year as we continue supporting high quality, private calling on WhatsApp wherever you are in the world.