WhatsApp is preparing to roll out an important feature to its iOS app as per the latest beta update. The Facebook-owned company is internally working on group voice and video calling feature, as per the source code spotted in the latest beta app for iPhone. Chances are that WhatsApp will roll out group voice calling first, then later, the group video calling because the latter is spotted with fewer references.
This news was reported by the reliable WABetaInfo on Twitter. The WhatsApp v2.17.70 beta for iPhone has references related to the group voice and video calls. "The 2.17.70 iOS update has very hidden references to group calls! Before it was an internal news, now it's all confirmed," WABetaInfo tweeted on Sunday.
"There are a lot of hidden references about group voice calls, but there is only one reference about group video calls. So group video calls are partially confirmed at the moment," added WABetaInfo.
Group voice and video calling is something several WhatsApp users requested for. For the unaware, WhatsApp's rival, Hike Messenger is offering group voice calls for quite some time now. And WhatsApp's parent company, Facebook Messenger also offers group voice and video calling feature. Microsoft-owned Skype offers group video calling feature.
Earlier this year, WhatsApp was reported to be working on the group voice calls feature, citing that the feature will be rolled out to the general public in 2018. And with these source code references, it's now confirmed that the feature is under works. What' surprising are the references to group video calls feature.
"WhatsApp 2.17.70 sends a request to the server to ask if the user you are calling is in another group call!" WaBetaInfo tweeted yesterday.
In addition, the report also added that WhatsApp group administrators will soon get more control over the group, apart from creating and deleting group people. It's said that in the future, WhatsApp group owners can remove more participants from a group at once, as compared to a single participant removal.
The WhatsApp v2.17.387 beta brought in several new administrator features such as the ability to choose whether participants can modify the subject & icon, etc.
In recent times, WhatsApp is also rumoured to be testing the revoke and unsend features, which could be added in a future update.
