WhatsApp Seeks To Join Audio Social Trend With Group Calling Update

As pandemic lockdowns continue to drag on in many areas, people continue to look for more ways to stay in touch with family and friends, while being physically separated. And with the rise of group social audio tools, WhatsApp has today added a new feature that fits in with this trend, while staying true to the app’s privacy-focused philosophy.

As you can see here, WhatsApp today announced a new update that will allow users to join a group call in the app even after the call has started.

As explained by WhatsApp:

Reachable calls reduce the burden of answering a group call as soon as it starts, and bring the spontaneity and ease of in-person conversations to group calls on WhatsApp. Some of the best conversations happen when you expect them to. less. Now if someone in your group misses a call when the phone rings, they can always join when they want. You can also drop off and join again while the call is still in progress. “

As noted, given WhatsApp’s focus on privacy, it cannot open public group chats the same way Clubhouse does. But it has similar options, limited only to friends and relationships. As such, the ability to view current group chats, and join or leave as you wish, is the closest it can provide in order to facilitate the same experience among your friends and acquaintances. trust.

Which, given the popularity of walk-in chat tools, could prove to be a good addition and help make engagement in the app even easier.

As you can see in the screenshots above, the new group call information screen will show who is already on a call and who has been invited but not yet joined. This is a convenient way to facilitate group connection, which, again, will undoubtedly be useful for those looking to maintain social bonds while remaining physically distant.

There could also be business use cases for the same, with the ability to run private member-only product preview sessions or the like in WhatsApp. Depending on how your community uses WhatsApp, this could be another way to reach your key segments and facilitate new brand information sessions among selected groups.

Although, of course, it’s primarily designed for one-on-one conversations, and it could be another valuable connection tool to help facilitate social activity in times of isolation.

Which we probably all need right now, with 18 months of separation probably weighing down on even the most introverted of us.

You can read more about the new WhatsApp group calling options here.