Facebook Messenger is getting some big improvements recently. Now Facebook has released another update, which gives users the ability to make group calls from your iPhone or Android, with up to 50 participants at one time.
This new feature is currently limited to iPhone and Android apps and the web app (on both facebook.com and messenger.com) will probably get the update at some point in the future. The feature builds on Facebook’s existing group chat feature. With this update, you should now see a red phone icon inside a group chat. Tap that button and your call will start. Once the call is ongoing, a new screen allows you to manage participants.
If you are on the receiving end of a group call and you miss it, you can tap the phone icon at any time while the call is still live to join in. You can also see a list of other participants during the call, and ping others who are yet to join. However, Facebook Messenger does not yet include a dynamic muting feature, which could be an issue during calls with many people.
This new group call feature is only available for voice calls, and the video calls in the Facebook Messenger are still one-to-one communication. However, that may change in the coming months as Messenger looks to reach feature parity with Hangouts and Skype.
Facebook is currently rolling out Group Voice Chat feature to its Android and iPhone apps.
