New WhatsApp feature will let you share your phone’s screen during video calls

WhatsApp has announced its latest feature – screen sharing for video calls. The feature was announced by parent company Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg via Facebook and Instagram.

Screen sharing for video calls on WhatsApp allows one to share documents, photos, and even shopping carts with their contacts. To access the same, one needs to tap on the “Share” icon which appears during video calls. Users can choose to share a specific app or their entire smartphone screen, as per their preference.

The feature works in a manner similar to how it works on more mainstream video-conferencing platforms, such as Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. The screen sharing feature for video calls on WhatsApp was initially released to beta testers in May itself.

However, the company has now started to roll out for the broader user base on Android devices. Concurrently, WhatsApp is also currently working on rolling out the feature for iOS and Windows in a phased manner. Therefore, one should be able to access the feature soon, if not immediately.

Video-calling features to look out for on WhatsApp

WhatsApp has had video calling capabilities for nearly seven years now, with the feature first being rolled out in 2016. However, until very recently, its functionalities were fairly limited.

Now though, WhatsApp has introduced a slew of video calling features, as it looks to take on traditional, more established video calling platforms. Alongside screen sharing for example, WhatsApp also introduced support for video calls in landscape mode, in a bid to offer a more immersive experience, hands-free. Landscape mode support becomes all the more useful when one uses the screen-sharing feature to share documents with their colleagues.

ALSO READ: This WhatsApp setting could help protect you from online scams

The instant messaging platform has also rolled out a picture-in-picture feature for video calls. This feature allows users to browse through WhatsApp as well as other apps while on a video call, without cutting their video feed on the call, which allows for an unhindered, uninterrupted conversation. Furthermore, they also recently introduced a video messages feature for chats, wherein users could respond to written messages in the form of a 60-second video.

Just recently, Apple, which is looking to make further inroads into the video conferencing space as well, introduced a screen-sharing feature referred to as SharePlay, with its FaceTime app. The same, similar to WhatsApp, allows iOS  users to share their screen with their contacts.