Signal group calls can now hold more people than WhatsApp

What you need to know

• Signal has raised the number of people who can join a group call from eight to 16.
• In contrast, WhatsApp group calls can accommodate only up to eight users.
• The service also adds new options to create your own sticker packs and a private scratchpad.

Signal announced a slew of new features on Wednesday, including more room for additional users during a group call and new features to expand the app's messaging options.

The biggest announcement is Signal's group call expansion. It can now make room for up to 16 users, up from the previous limit of eight persons.

Signal's expanded group calls demonstrate the company's increased effort to provide a platform where friends and colleagues can virtually meet in an encrypted environment. It gained significant traction following WhatsApp's contentious privacy policy change earlier this year. The platform also saw a spike in new sign-ups after a massive Facebook outage earlier this week.

More importantly, the new update gives Signal an edge over its close rival, WhatsApp. Group calls on the Facebook-owned messaging service are limited to a maximum of eight users. After some beta testing, that capability was made available to the general public early last year.

In addition, Signal has got a handful of new messaging features for users. You can now create your own sticker packs that you and your friends can use. To make your own stickers, you can simply upload stickers on desktop.

You can add up to 200 stickers, and you can assign one emoji per sticker. Signal revealed that it also collaborated with the artist Plastic Thing to create a sticker.

Signal also introduced a note-taking feature of its own. Note to Self is a new private scratchpad in the platform that lets you copy and paste your password or create a grocery list, for example.

The latest change is available on many of the best Android phones as well as iOS devices and desktops.