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Snapchat is rolling out group video chats like Messenger and Houseparty

It’s you and your 15 closest friends.

by Kurt Wagner
Three women stand on a street in London, interacting with their phones
Three women stand on a street in London, interacting with their phones
Christian Vierig / Getty

Snapchat is rolling out group video chats — the same kind of group video chats that apps like Houseparty and Facebook Messenger offer.

The idea is to give Snapchat users more ways to use the app for their day-to-day communication. Snapchat is well known for its Stories feature and its Discover section full of digital publishers, but the app’s most popular feature is still private messaging.

Video chatting with your friends is more in line with private messaging than anything.

The feature means more competition for Messenger and Skype, which also offers group video chats. But it’s probably really bad news for Houseparty, the group video app that spun out of Meerkat and has been popular with teenagers. Snapchat is also popular with teenagers, so the two user bases likely overlap.

Snap says the new feature will roll out globally over the next week or so. You’ll be able to video chat with groups of up to 16 people, and voice chat with groups of up to 32 people.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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