Apple Group FaceTime — a feature to be included in iOS 12, the newest version of the company’s popular mobile operating system — will let user make video calls with up to 32 people at the same time.
Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi announced Group FaceTime on Monday during the company’s 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose.
With Group FaceTime, Apple’s (AAPL) video calling app will allow multi-party video calling — like Google Hangouts (GOOG) and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Skype online calling service — for the first time.
Essentially an improved version of its FaceTime app for iPhones and iPads, Apple’s Group Facetime will make it easier for businesses (or large families) to hold video conferences with multiple participants, so long as they have iOS-powered devices. The ability to do videoconferencing through Group FaceTime will make iOS devices more capable in the workplace as office tools.
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In addition to having group video chat capabilities, iPhone X owners will be able to use Apple’s Memoji (the company’s silly, 3-dimensional animated representations of users) during Apple Group FaceTime phone calls.