Not long ago, Mark Zuckerberg's social network launchedRooms pour Messenger. This is a new multi-party video calling feature available in Facebook's messaging app.
With the same aim of facilitating video exchanges between friends and between members of the same familyin these times of confinement, WhatsApp benefits from a practical improvement. The application now supportsvideo calls with up to 8 participants.
We're expanding@WhatsAppgroup video and voice calls to allow up to 8 people.pic.twitter.com/6efqB3rFyv
— Facebook (@Facebook)April 24, 2020
Until then, only two people could video call each other via WhatsApp.
WhatsApp and its encrypted exchanges
Why prefer WhatsApp to other videoconferencing services, such as Messenger Rooms? Because WhatsApp, even if remaining under the yoke of Facebook, a company that does not have a good reputation in terms of respect for private life, includes theend-to-end encryption for its exchanges, written, but also video.
Thus, video calls are guaranteed to be well and truly encrypted, at least until then for two-person exchanges. We imagine that this security should continue for exchanges of three to 8 people.
Messenger Rooms, for example, does not offer this end-to-end encryption of exchanges. On the other hand, the latter wants to set the bar a little higher in terms of limit of people per call. Facebook has indeed announced that it is working on expanding videoconference calls on Messenger Rooms to reach50 participants soon.
In any case, to turn away from Zoom, Skype or even FaceTime, in the case where it is necessary to communicate between iOS and Android users, WhatsApp can now constitute a good alternative due to its security. Especially since Facebook could, according to a recent rumor, add support for several devices to the application. This is in fact very limited for use on the web or even on iPad. For example, it's impossible to use WhatsApp on your Mac without having your iPhone nearby turned on and accessing the network. It is also impossible to use WhatsApp on a Wi-Fi-only iPad. We hope that an improvement in this area will be proposed very quickly by its developers.
In any case, to take advantage of the new feature of the moment, video calls with up to 8 participants, you must have the latest version of WhatsApp available on the App Store recently.
Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.
