27th April 2021: Led by a strong desire to provide Sri Lankans with different ways to stay connected with more people amid the ongoing pandemic and as a response to growing demand and usage, Rakuten Viber, the leading messaging app in the country, assuring free and secure communication, announced it has expanded its Group Video Call capacity to up to 30 participants.
As a result of the pandemic in 2020 and restrictions forcing most people to stay at home, Viber responded by bolstering its capacities and doubling the maximum number of Group Video and Audio Calls participants to 20 people in anticipation of increase usage.
With the expansion of Group Video Calls capacity to 30 participants, Viber now allows users to connect with and bring more people together in one secure platform. Delivering high-quality video calls, the feature is especially helpful for office workers who may need to invite more participants in a virtual meeting, educators who are looking for new ways to get in touch with their students, and simply anyone who wishes to spend more quality time with their friends, families, and loved ones, or build their communities while staying safe at home.
In a recent Asia Pacific (APAC) regional poll of over 8,000 participants, over 50% used group video calls to chat with family and connect with friends while more than 30% used the feature for work purposes.
In Sri Lanka too, poll results indicate that Group Video Calls are being used to connect with families and friends, for work and fitness class in addition to a growing number who use the feature for school online classes.
And with Viber’s dedication in upholding users’ privacy, Group Video Calls are encrypted, ensuring that no one – not even Viber – can listen in, guaranteeing that conversations remain private as intended.
The update will come weeks after the messaging app has rolled out the Grid View on both desktop and mobile platforms so people could interact easily with each other during video calls. The expanded Group Video Call will soon be live both for Android and IOS devices, and works on mobile and desktop. The app is also committing to extend the Group Video Call capacity in the next months.
“Viber is one of the most popular messaging apps in Sri Lanka, and we are constantly working on different upgrades to our platform so we can better serve our users and support their communication needs especially in these trying times. We believe that through this gradual expansion of our video call capacities, more people are empowered to forge stronger relationships with more colleagues, friends, or loved ones despite the ongoing restrictions set by the social distancing guidelines,” shares Anna Znamenskaya, the Chief Growth Officer at Rakuten Viber.