Google Duo now allows up to 32 people participants in a group video call

Google on Wednesday announced that the technology giant has raised the group video participants limit to 32 from 12. At 32 participants, Google Duo is now on par with Apple's FaceTime, but still less than Skype's 50 people limit and Zoom which allows as many as 100 users (500 if used with the 'Large Meeting' add on).

"Today, one of our most requested features for Duo, group calling on the web with up to 32 people, is starting to roll out on the latest version of Chrome," tweeted Sanaz Ahari, Google's senior director of product and design.

The search engine giant is also rolling out a new video codec technology to improve video call quality and reliability, even on very low-bandwidth connections.

The second feature that Google released was the ability on Duo to click a photo during a video calling.

Google is also adding a feature that will now automatically save video and voice messages that previously expired after 24 hours.

Users can send personalised video and voice messages when they can't call. Google now lets its users say "I miss you" or "I'm thinking of you" using one of its Augmented Reality (AR) effects.