British Expats in Spain Applaud WhatsApp as friends in the UK, Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol enjoy Group Video Calls

Thousands of British ex-pats have retreated into their homes to escape the coronavirus and are turning to video calling chat apps to stay in touch with friends, family members and colleagues in Spain and the UK.

Telegram, Zoom, and House Party have until now ruled the roost, but now they have a flash looking competitor as the new WhatsApp is being upgraded to allow group video calling. This means more than the original four people can see each other at the same time although the company themselves have not yet announced the total final amount.

So, for example, you could chat with a friend from the Costa del Sol together with their mates in Benidorm and family from the UK and you can all join in at the same time, brilliant!

Number of users in Zoom

A large meeting using Zoom allows up to 500 or 1,000 participants, depending on the licence, to attend a meeting. The owner or the admin of the account can add this feature for users with Pro licences and it can be subscribed to on a monthly or annual basis.

This has pushed WhatsApp to work against the clock in order to incorporate new functions such as video calls from more than four people.

Video calls between more than two people have been available on WhatsApp since 2018. However, since then, the maximum number of attendees, both for voice calls and video calls has been four.

At the moment, the version is only available to those users who have the beta version of the latest WhatsApp update with the new feature reaching all phones during the next official update coming any day now.

WHATSAPP MAKES CALLS SAFER

The change in the number of participants also coincides with an announcement that WhatsApp will make to all those who participate in video calls. The application will display a message indicating that the call is encrypted from end to end (as is the case with messages), which differentiates it from the competition.

During the last few weeks, it has been revealed that both Zoom and House Party have suffered security problems when it comes to safeguarding their users’ data and the secrecy of their communications. Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have both expressed concerns over its security and recently, schools all across the UK and have been advised not to use it.

Also, it should be remembered that last week, WhatsApp added a button to group chats that simplify the procedure of multiple video calls for users. Look out for the update.