Rumor: WhatsApp will feature group video calling next year

WhatsApp may get a function next year to video calls with several people at the same time. Facebook’s other chat app, Messenger, already supports that function and now WhatsApp is said to be working internally on group video chats.

WABetaInfo, which is often the first to discover unannounced features in WhatsApp, says it can’t show anything yet, but the site is said to have found ‘references’ to the upcoming feature. Sometime in the upcoming updates, WhatsApp would like to try the function, after which a release will follow next year. The company is already testing the feature internally.

Adding group conversations in video would be a logical next step for the chat application. Last year WhatsApp introduced video calling in the app. Late last year, Facebook introduced group video chat for Messenger. The social network has owned WhatsApp for several years and the teams are not separated; a product manager recently blogged about his move from Facebook to WhatsApp.