Snapchat is trying to generate some positive buzz about its services after a series of public failures by adding a group video chat feature and support to tag friends in snaps. According to The Daily Dot, these new attempts to wean people off the WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram competition are going to be rolling out in the next few weeks.
The group video chat will reportedly allow up to 16 people to talk over each other at one time, with the app’s filters and effects available in conversation. If you really want to talk to more than 16 people at a time, though, you’ll be able to with a voice-only group chat extending to up 32 users simultaneously. As far as the competition goes, Facebook currently caps its group video chat feature at six users and 50 for voice-only. That’s a pretty significant difference that Snapchat presumably hopes will get users to run back to them.
This isn’t the first time Snapchat has offered video chats to its users, as people have been able to do so since 2016—albeit only in a one-on-one capacity. According to Mashable, over 60 percent of Snapchat’s 187 million daily active users use the company’s chat features, with millions of calls being hosted by the app on a regular basis.
