This would double the current limitation on users that can participate in video calls on the instant messaging app. While it’s certainly not the kind of capacity that can compete with the likes of Google Hangouts and Zoom at least families with more than four members won’t have to decide who they love most.

With video conferencing seeing such a boom due to the coronavirus pandemic, social media sites have been pulling out all the stops to either cater to or capitalise (depending on who you ask) on the gap in the market. Zoom may be the hot commodity at the moment, despite it’s issues with security breaches, since it can host dozens of people at a time. Yet for more personal calls that don’t require you set up a laptop or computer, most people use WhatsApp video calls.

While WhatsApp rather annoyingly only allows up to four people to participate in a video call at once, reports indicate that the total number may be set to increase. According to WABetainfo, WhatsApp will soon be rolling out an update to up the number of contacts that can join in a video call from four to eight. The only limitation is that all the participants will require the latest iOS or Android update so better make sure Nana knows how to do that before suggesting the idea.

You’ll be able to set up a call with more participants the same way you’ve always been doing it. Yet if that’s still baffling you we wrote up a short and handy guide on how conduct a group WhatsApp call which you can find right here.