2020 has seen its fair number of challenges and changes. We’ve all adapted to new ways of staying in touch, getting work done, celebrating birthdays and weddings, and even exercising. As more and more of our critical and personal moments move online, we want to continue to provide you with new ways to share and connect privately.
Today, we’re launching group calls in Signal with the latest versions of our apps. Group calls are free, private, and end-to-end encrypted — like everything else on Signal.
Call Me Maybe
Now when you open a group chat in Signal, you’ll see a video call button at the top. When you start a call, the group will receive a notification letting them know a call has started.
When you start or join a group call, Signal will display the participants in a grid view. You can also swipe up to switch to a view that automatically focuses the screen on who is speaking, and it will update in real time as the active speaker changes.
Hung Up
Signal Group Calls are one of many features that we have designed with Signal Private Groups as a foundation, using our RingRTC library for handling frame encryption and the logic around setting up and joining calls.
Ring, Ring
Free group calls are available starting today. Update your apps to the latest versions to get started. Group calls are only supported in new style Signal groups. You won’t see the call button in your legacy groups, but your legacy Signal groups will start automatically updating to New Groups in the coming weeks. Group calls are currently limited to 5 participants, but we’re working to let you have even more participants in a group call soon. We hope group calls are a helpful new way to connect!