WhatsApp’s video call upgrades make it even more Zoom-like

Meta is making some improvements to WhatsApp video calls that should make them more useful for conversations with large groups of people.

One feature is a speaker spotlight, which automatically highlights the speaker and makes them appear first on-screen, according to a Meta blog post. The company is also improving screen sharing to make it easier to watch videos as a group: if you’re screen sharing and showing a video with audio, the audio is now shared as well.

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7Meta’s promotional image about its updates to WhatsApp calls.

In addition, video calls will also let you have 32 people, no matter what device you’re on. That cap had already been in place for video calls on mobile devices, but not when you were using the desktop apps: the Windows app had been limited to 16 people, and the Mac app had been limited to eight people.

Meta says the updates will roll out “over the next few weeks.”