Meta Platforms has begun testing a beta version of WhatsApp that provides a new “voice chat” feature allowing up to 32 people to participate in a call.

“With this feature, WhatsApp plans to offer group participants a new way to initiate voice calls,” said WhatsApp watcher WABetaInfo. The new feature is not dissimilar to group calls in Discord, a messaging and social app developed for gamers.

Beta testers – those who have access, anyway – will soon see a new voice waveform icon within a group chat. When activated, the called group members will receive a push notification alerting them of the voice chat, but their phones will not ring.

Groups that have an ongoing voice chat will have a small thumbnail indicating so in a user’s chat list.

Voice chats, like texts and voice notes on WhatsApp, are also end-to-end encrypted, so only the participants of the voice chat can listen to its contents.

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According to WABetaInfo, the voice chat feature may be introduced to the stable version of WhatsApp soon. “This appears to be wider release so some users on the stable version of the app might be able to experiment with the same feature.” — (c) 2023 NewsCentral Media