WhatsApp may soon let you create groups of more than a thousand members. The latest beta update for Android and iOS increases the participant limit in groups to 1024. That’s double the current limit of 512, which was rolled out a few months back.
WhatsApp expands groups to accommodate 1024 members
For a long time, WhatsApp had a participant limit of 256 people in groups. It was more than enough for a group of close friends, classmates, or a family. But as remote collaboration and communication grew in recent years following the coronavirus pandemic, the Meta-owned messaging app has been adding features to cater to these needs. It expanded group video calls to accommodate up to 32 people, though only eight participants can be active on the video call at a time. The company also extended the size limit for files to 2GB, over a 20-fold increase from the previous limit of 100MB.
As part of those efforts, WhatsApp expanded groups as well. In June this year, it rolled out the ability to add up to 512 members to a group. This enabled organizations or businesses to communicate through WhatsApp groups. They can create groups of their clients or customers to communicate important messages across. It appears the company wants to take things further. For those who need it, WhatsApp will now support groups of up to 1024 people.
First reported by the ever-so-reliable guys at WABetaInfo, this change was recently rolled out to some beta testers. It appears to be limited testing as not all beta testers have received this ability. If things pan out as planned and WhatsApp decides to proceed with the extended group limit, a wider rollout may come in the coming weeks. Keep your app updated to get the latest features early. Note that the rest of the features will remain the same. Just that you’ll be able to have groups of over a thousand people on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp recently added Call Links
WhatsApp is readying bigger groups shortly after it announced Call Links. The latter allows you to create shareable links to WhatsApp voice and video calls. You can share the link with other people so they can quickly join the call as long as they have a WhatsApp account. This feature has yet to roll out widely. But, as said earlier, always keep the app updated so you don’t miss out on new features. You can click the button below to download the latest version of WhatsApp from the Google Play Store.
Discussion about this post