WhatsApp Update Expands Features: Group Video Chat, Stickers, Forwards

Today the folks at WhatsApp – owned by Facebook – increased the number of people that can join a group video meeting to 8 users. WhatsApp calls this Group Video – and before now, the service was slightly more limited, with a max of 4 users at a time. Per WhatsApp officials, this boost is due in part to the drastic increase in use of WhatsApp over the past month, during our current global pandemic.

There's also a new "Together at Home" sticker pack in WhatsApp as of this week. That sticker pack was given to the world by WhatsApp in collaboration with the World Health Organization. The stickers are available in the newest version of the WhatsApp app – along with the increased WhatsApp Group Video meeting ability.

WhatsApp recently launched their own COVID-19 pandemic webpage for information on WhatsApp services and assistance for citizens of planet Earth. This page was created in collaboration with the World Health Organization, Unicef, the UNDP, and the International Fact-Checking Network with Poynter.

Referencing their recent (early April) limits of message forwards in the WhatsApp social network, WhatsApp suggested they'd had at an at least mild success since the limit placement earlier this year. "Since putting into place this new limit, globally there has been a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages sent on WhatsApp," said a WhatsApp representative in a statement. "This change is helping keep WhatsApp a place for personal and private conversations."

Take a peek at the latest version of WhatsApp to see these changes in full effect. Facebook also raised their limits for group video calls – and it wouldn't be a shock to find Instagram release a similar service. Might as well get all the services in on the same functionality. Take a peek at the timeline of WhatsApp stories below to expand your knowledge of what the app's all about here in 2020.