WhatsApp now lets you video chat with up to four friends simultaneously

WhatsApp has finally introduced the ability to handle group video chats with up to four contacts simultaneously.

Each person will appear on the screen; which could make things quite cosy if you’re a fan of small-screened phones.

The Facebook-owned messaging app first revealed the feature at a developer’s conference back in May. But now it looks like we can all start conferencing calling our buddies.

If you want to try it out, all you need to do is start a one-on-one voice or video call with someone and then tap the ‘add participant’ button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

“Over the last couple years, people have enjoyed making voice and video calls on WhatsApp. In fact, our users spend over 2 billion minutes on calls per day,” the company said in a blog post.

“We’re excited to announce that group calls for voice and video are coming to WhatsApp starting today.”

“Group calls are always end-to-end encrypted, and we’ve designed calling to work reliably around the world in different network conditions. The feature is currently rolling out on the iPhone and Android versions of our app.”

By launching the group chat feature now, Mark Zuckerberg is stealing a march on Apple.

The tech giant said that it would bring group FaceTime chats to its iPhone and iPad gadgets later this year when the next version of iOS rolls out.

On FaceTime, the program will automatically detect who is talking and make their head appear slightly bigger. And while WhatsApp may not offer that, it does give iOS and Android users a way to all communicate in a group call together.

But this isn’t the only feature the messaging app is rolling out. In a bid to tackle the spread of fake news, it will also start placing limits on how many contacts you can forward messages, photos and videos to.

“We built WhatsApp as a private messaging app – a simple, secure, and reliable way to communicate with friends and family. And as we’ve added new features, we’ve been careful to try and keep that feeling of intimacy, which people say they love,” the company explained on July 30.

“A few years back we added a feature to WhatsApp that lets you forward a message to multiple chats at once. Today, we’re launching a test to limit forwarding that will apply to everyone using WhatsApp.”