In this article
A one-to-one call can be opened up into a group one, and a group one can be started from scratch with several people at once. It rings everybody, it holds a large number of them, and the encryption that covers a two-person call covers this too.
That last part is what separates it from the open voice chat inside a group, and the two get confused constantly.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Turn a call into a group call without hanging up.
- check_circle Start one with several people at once.
- check_circle Tell this apart from a group's voice chat.
- check_circle Say what the encryption does and does not cover.
Adding people happens from inside the call, without ending what is already running.
ring_volume A call rings; a voice chat does not
This is the difference that decides which one you want. A call interrupts: it makes everybody's phone go off, now, and the assumption is that the conversation is starting immediately. A voice chat inside a group is a room that opens quietly and waits, and people drift in when they notice.
Both are useful and they are for opposite situations. Four people who need to sort something out in ten minutes want the ringing kind. A community session at eight o'clock wants the quiet kind, because ringing two hundred members would be an act of aggression.
The second difference is who can arrive. A call contains the people who were invited to it; a group's voice chat is open to the group, which means anybody who joined last week can wander in. For a conversation that is meant to stay among named people, that distinction is the whole point.
Three ways several people can talk
They look similar on screen and behave nothing alike.
| What it is for | Who can get in | What it does not do | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A group call | Something that needs deciding now, among specific people | Only the people invited, whether at the start or added during it. Nobody wanders in. | It is not quiet. Everybody's phone rings, so it is the wrong instrument for an optional gathering. |
| A group's voice chat | An open room — office hours, a session, a place to drop in | Anybody in the group, at any time, for as long as it is open. | It does not announce itself. Nobody is notified, so without a message saying it is happening, almost nobody comes. |
| A one-to-one call | The ordinary case, and the one you can expand later | One person, until you add somebody. | Nothing much — but people forget it can grow, and hang up to start a group call from the beginning. |
Ask whether you want to interrupt people or invite them. That question answers which of the three you need.
lock What "encrypted" covers here
The audio is encrypted between the participants, which means the servers carrying it cannot listen. That is a real property and it is the reason this kind of call is worth preferring for anything sensitive over an open room in a group.
It is worth being precise about what that does not include. Encryption protects the line, not the room: anybody in the call hears everything, anybody can be recording, and a participant holding a second phone is outside the reach of any cryptography. The protection is against interception in transit, and only that.
Which makes the practical safeguard a social one. Know who is on the call, notice when somebody is added, and treat "who else is here" as a question worth asking aloud rather than assuming the list on screen has stayed the same since you last looked.
settings Starting one
- From an existing call, add people No need to hang up first.
- Or start it from the calls screen Selecting several contacts at once.
- Use a call when it should interrupt A voice chat when it should not.
- Check who is listed before the sensitive part The list can change.
- Say when you add somebody The screen is quiet about it.
- Remember encryption covers the line Not the people on it.
This page is the ringing kind of call. The curriculum step is the other kind: how an open room is run, how speakers and listeners are managed, and what it takes to hold a session for a large audience.
At a glance
- 1Group calls
Add people to a call without hanging up.
- 2Calls ring
Calls ring phones; voice chats wait in the group.
- 3Encrypted
Group calls are end-to-end encrypted for participants.
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