There are so many things that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to full life, and one of them is video calls and conferencing over social media apps. After more than a year of waiting on, Telegram group video calls are finally here! The platform first announced its plans to bring group video calls in April of 2020 – and the promise has been fulfilled in the latest update.
The new feature will let users across mobile devices, tablets, and desktops easily transform their group audio chats into video conference calls. The reveal is a take, and even an overtake, on existing service providers in the same bracket like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Apple’s FaceTime. Let’s get into the details of how it works!
Read About: How to protect messages on Telegram with a passcode
How do Telegram group video calls work?
If you wish to get started with Telegram group video calls, the process is a simple one if you are engaged in a group audio chat. All you need to do is to tap the camera icon in a group audio call to switch your video on. Once enabled, you can pin one of your group members to see their video on the front.
There is also an option to share your screen and even both your camera feed and screen simultaneously. So, this can work effectively for those that want to make presentations during meetings and online classes.
Additional support for tabs and desktop
Additionally, if you use a tablet or desktop, there is additional support during video calls. You can open the side panel and see a split-screen view of the video grid and a list of participants. This should be optimized for both portrait and landscape orientation.
When using a desktop particularly, you also have the ability to do selective screen sharing. What this means is that, like in Zoom, you can broadcast only an individual program during their group video calls, instead of showing the rest of the participants the entire screen. Desktop users also get members pinned automatically when they share their screen.
Also, voice chats will be available on desktops in a separate window to let users type and talk without leaving their other important tasks.
Improved noise suppression
We all know that the biggest setback with voice over-IP calls is the background noise which makes audio sketchy and unclear. To this, various apps have devised means to do away with this and offer better service to their users. In the latest app update, Telegram has enabled improved noise suppression in voice chats to make audio clearer. However, if at all you want to get the full detail of the sound on the other end of your call, you can disable noise suppression.
Read About: New Telegram feature lets you move chats from other apps to Telegram
Telegram group video call participants
At the moment, the app’s group voice calls can accommodate an unlimited number of participants. However, the option to make group video calls is currently limited to the first 30 people joining a conversation on the platform. Thus, you can only add a maximum of 29 members to your Telegram group video calls.
But we know that the adoption of such features and improvement in technology can change so much. We believe the increase in demand will prompt Telegram to raise the limit soon. Let us keep our fingers crossed as we wait for future updates.
You can get the updated app on your device by downloading its latest version. It is available for download on iOS through the App Store and Android via the Google Play store. Desktop users can also download the update directly from the website.