WhatsApp's Group Voice Chat Is Now an Official Feature

They're a little different from group calls

Key Features

This new feature may seem familiar because it's a lot like a Discord or Slack voice chat that lets you have a discussion with more people than you could in a group call.

Wanna chat with 128 of your closest friends on WhatsApp? Now you can.

WhatsApp has made a group voice chat feature available that allows you to chat with more people. It works a little differently from a group call in a couple of ways. First, there's no ringing involved. And now you can chat with even more people.

To start a group voice chat in WhatsApp, you first need to be in a group chat. Then just tap the voice chat button (it looks like a sound wave). An in-chat notification is sent to the group and others can tap the notification to join the chat. That's the only notification others will get of the call. Their phone won't ring.

Now, there are a few caveats. For starters, group voice chats are only available to groups of 33 to 128 people. This differs from group calls because a group call is limited to 32 participants. Also, you can only participate in group voice chats from your primary device, and if no one joins the chat the call ends after 60 minutes when there's only one person left. If everyone leaves, the call ends automatically.

The group voice chat feature might seem familiar. It's because it is. The feature is similar to the voice chats that you can participate in on Discord or Slack. Controls for the voice chat are at the top of the screen, and you can exit a group voice chat at any time by tapping the red X.

The group voice chat is rolling out to WhatsApp today, so if you don't see it yet, you may need to update the app to access it.

Read the original article on Lifewire.