We had heard about the Communities feature on WhatsApp several times in the past but we never knew when it will make its official entry. Well, not anymore, as the Meta-owned messaging platform has finally announced the Communities feature for better group management for all. Here’s all you need to know.
WhatsApp Communities Finally Introduced
WhatsApp Communities is meant for people to easily manage and organize all their group conversations. Users can put all their groups under one place with a “structure that works for them,” which will be the dedicated Communities tab on the app. The aim is to streamline the management of larger WhatsApp groups.
The messaging platform explains the feature as follows: “We are building Communities on WhatsApp for close-knit groups that need more tools to organize and manage their conversations. These kinds of groups typically have a connection where people know one another and are organized around a common place or interest.“
So, if you are a team lead, you can easily bring all your colleagues under Communities and have weekly discussions with them, share vision boards, and a lot more with much ease.
The Communities section of WhatsApp will thus allow users to send updates to all the groups at once and even set small discussions groups too. Admins will also get access to additional features like the ability to send broadcast messages to all members of the community and even choose to opt some people out. Each community on WhatsApp will have a small description and a list of groups people can join.
Much like how other chats on WhatsApp are, Communities will also be end-to-end encrypted and provide people with the options to report abuse, block accounts, and more. Phone numbers of people will also be hidden to maintain privacy and WhatsApp will introduce “sensible limits on size, discoverability, and forwarding.” Although, we are yet to get more information on this.
It is revealed that WhatsApp Communities is in its early days and hence, more features will be introduced for a better experience. It will be a slow rollout and will reach all in the coming months. Mark Zuckerberg has also revealed that Communities will soon reach Facebook Messenger and Instagram for a whole interoperable ecosystem, I assume!
More details will be out soon, and we will be sure to keep you posted on them. So stay tuned, and do tell us how you like the new WhatsApp Communities feature in the comments below!
