The instant messaging app Signal has included a new feature in the platform that will allow 40 users to be a part of one video call. The app also maintains the privacy of users and ensures that all the messages are end-to-end encrypted despite the capacity of video calls.
The Signal is a growing platform developed by non-profit Signal Technology Foundation and Signal Messenger LLC which had to face powerful competitors like WhatsApp and Telegram which offers some great features compared to it.
But WhatsApp allows only eight people in a group call and now Signal will hold 40 people in one call which is a great achievement. The developers are still working to add the most advanced features to let Signal make its place in the growing market. Recently, it introduced a new monetization feature that allows users to make monetary contributions to help support and sustainable development.
The developers stated that they have used the “Selective Forwarding” technology to allow calls to go through servers that forward the contents of the call to other participants without sacrificing the privacy of users.
In a blog post, Signal disclosed the technical writing, “There is no off the shelf software that would allow us to support calls of that size while ensuring that all communication is end-to-end encrypted, so we built our own open-source Signal Calling Service to do the job.”
Three kinds of architecture allow the platforms to feature video and audio transfer- Server Mixing, Full Mesh and Selective Forwarding. Now, server mixing is not end-to-end encrypted thus not safe while the full mesh allows only small calls, so comes Selective Forwarding.
According to a company’s post, Signal used the open-source SFU to ensure the media transferred securely. With the new technology, one user will send the media to the server, then the server “forwards” without viewing or altering. Their post then mentioned, “This works with many participants, and is compatible with end-to-end encryption.”
The SFU has been used by the firm for almost 9 months and now the capacity has been raised to 40 participants. With the advanced features getting developed one by one, the Signal developers are moving ahead to compete with WhatsApp.
