Expansion of WhatsApp’s Voice Chat Feature

WhatsApp is enhancing its Discord-like voice chat functionality, enabling group chats of any size to engage in real-time conversations. Unlike traditional group calling, which has been available on the app for years, real-time “audio hangouts” are more flexible, allowing users to drop in and out without interrupting the entire group.

The voice chat feature offers greater flexibility compared to traditional calls, as it does not occupy the entire screen. This allows users to simultaneously follow new messages in the chat or monitor incoming notifications.

Initially introduced by Meta in 2023, the feature was initially limited to larger groups of 32 to 256 participants. However, WhatsApp has now expanded this feature to include both smaller and larger group chats, with support for groups of up to 1,024 participants, which may be chaotic for both texting and audio conversations.