In April this year when Telegram hit over 400 million monthly users, the company hinted at its plans to introduce group video calling by the end of the year. While we haven’t spotted any evidence regarding group video calling just yet, the company has now started testing group voice calling on Android.
With the latest Telegram beta version 7.3.0, Telegram has added experimental support for group voice calling. To access the feature, open a group and tap on the group header to expand it. You will now see the list of group members, notification settings, and the ability to rename the group. On this page, tap on the ellipsis (vertical three dots) icon present in the top right corner and choose ‘Start Voice chat’.
Once you’ve joined the call, you will be on mute by default. You can either tap on the large unmute button or hold the mic button to speak, much like how you send voice notes. When you’ve unmuted yourself, the blue mic button will turn green and will show visual animations when you speak. Take a look at the feature in action below.
From my experience, Telegram’s group voice calling is on par with other messaging apps. I didn’t notice any significant latency when I made a few calls with it. However, the process to initiate a group call is a bit cumbersome at this moment. Before the feature makes its way to the stable version, it will be convenient if Telegram adds a call button right on the group’s home page.
