WhatsApp Gets Ability to Mute, Message Participants in Group Calls

WhatsApp has updated its group voice calls experience on both Android and iOS. The update brings features to let users mute any other participants or message one of them while staying active on the call. The new update comes just days after WhatsApp expanded group voice calls to up to 32 people from the earlier eight-participant limit. The instant messaging app introduced a new interface to support the expanded list of participants in group voice calls.

On Friday, WhatsApp announced the release of its updated group voice calls experience that brings the ability to let users mute other participants. The update also introduces the option to let users message a specific participant while on the call.

To get the option to mute or message a participant on the call, you need to press and hold the name card of that participant. A pop-up menu will appear with the given options.

The ability to mute someone on call is particularly helpful in case someone forgets to mute themselves. However, it could also be misused to intentionally make a participant silent during a call. The participant, though, can unmute themselves at any point of time by hitting the Unmute button.

In addition to the options to mute and message participants in group voice calls, WhatsApp has added an indicator to inform participants when more people join large calls. It is quite an obvious addition as WhatsApp now has support for 32 participants in group voice calls, and it would be difficult to see when someone joins a group call that already has multiple participants.

WhatsApp confirmed to Gadgets 360 that the update is rolled out to all users. We were also able to see the changes on the latest versions of both WhatsApp for Android and iOS.

You can get the latest version of WhatsApp on your phone by going to Google Play or the App Store, depending on the device you have.