WhatsApp introduced group video calls in 2018.
The feature arrived in July 2018, initially allowing up to four people to participate in a group voice or video call. Users could start a one-to-one call and add other participants, making the feature an extension of WhatsApp’s existing calling tools.
This was separate from WhatsApp’s earlier video-calling launch. One-to-one video calls were introduced in November 2016 for Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone users. Group calling therefore came roughly two years later, rather than arriving with the original video feature.
The 2018 launch is also sometimes confused with WhatsApp’s 2020 expansion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, WhatsApp increased group video-call capacity from four participants to eight. Later updates expanded the limit further, but those changes did not alter the original introduction year.