Google’s video calling service, Google Duo, has updated the number of participants supported in a video call to 8.

Through a product update published by Google on Friday, the tech giant further confirmed that the roll-out will serve both Android and iOS users.

“Now up to eight people can catch up with group calling on Duo. Group calling is now available globally on both iOS and Android,” read the statement.

Google says the video calls are end-to-end encrypted, like all other Duo calls and video messages, therefore only participants in the calls can access the conversations.

Alongside the video calls update, Duo’s ‘Video Messages’ — a feature which enables users to leave a video message to their callers when they cannot pick up — will now be customizable by drawing or adding text and emojis.

This is not the first time that Google Duo is making changes to its video call feature in recent times to keep up with its competitors.

In February this year, Google announced that the platform would extend video calls to web users, having been only limited to mobile apps since its introduction in August 2016.

Currently, Duo’s main competitors: Apple’s FaceTime, Skype, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp support 32, 50, 50 and 4 participants in a video call respectively.
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