Have you ever wanted to get up to 1,000 people together for a massive video call? Telegram just added the option to host gigantic video sessions through its Group Video Calls 2.0 update. This means you can have video sessions with you and up to 999 of your closest friends.
Meet Telegram’s “Group Video Calls 2.0”
Telegram added support for group video calls in June, which means the company has significantly accelerated its video efforts in a short time by ramping up the capacity to 1,000. The feature allows up to 1,000 users to watch a group video call on Telegram.
That means that 1,000 users can’t participate in the call; that would be utter chaos. Instead, 30 people can participate in the call, as was the limit with the original implementation of Telegram’s group calling, and the other 970 people can observe. This could be useful for remote classes, large meetings with entire companies, small concerts, and so on.
The company isn’t satisfied with 1,000 users, though, as Telegram’s blog post says, it won’t be happy until “all humans on Earth can join one group call and watch us yodel in celebration.”
How to Host a Giant Video Call
To start a group call, you need to launch a Voice Chat from the info page of any group where you are an admin, turn the video option on, and you’ll be ready to go. Once the chat is running, you can invite people until you hit that massive limit.
The first 29 others will be able to share their camera and participate in the call. The rest will watch without being able to speak or show their camera. It’s straightforward to get up and running, and it could end up being incredibly useful for everything from remote work to personal calls.
What Else Is New in Telegram?
Another significant change is Video Messages 2.0. Telegram is improving its quick video message feature with higher resolution videos and the ability to expand a clip to see those extra pixels. You can also tap a video message to pause, fast-forward, or rewind it. And if you want to entertain your friends with some karaoke, audio will keep playing from your device while you record video messages.
The latest Telegram update also adds screen sharing with sound to one-on-one video calls. That means the person with whom you’re sharing your screen can hear the sounds from your device, which could be helpful for collaborating on video or audio files.
The update implements video playback speeds of .5x, 1.5x, and 2x for those times when you’re in a hurry or need to slow things down a notch.
