Communities, a new WhatsApp feature that offers bigger, more organised conversation groups that was first put through testing earlier this year, is now officially available.
Communities introduce a number of new features to the messaging platform with the goal of enhancing communication and organisation among businesses, clubs, schools, and other private groups. These features include admin controls, support for sub-groups and announcement groups, 32-person voice and video calls, larger file sharing, emoji reactions, and polls.
Communities itself provide end-to-end encryption and can accommodate groups of up to 1,024 users.
Emoji reactions, massive file sharing (up to 2GB), and the option for administrators to remove messages are just a few of the features created for Communities that have already made their way to the WhatsApp platform before today’s debut. According to the business, WhatsApp will now enable polls, 32-person video calls, and larger group sizes more widely outside of Communities.
Due to the fact that both the new feature and Facebook Groups enable features like sub-groups, file sharing, admin functionality, and more, there may initially be some parallels between the two. WhatsApp Communities, however, are designed to be used by people who may already be connected in the real world, unlike Facebook Groups, which are frequently used by dispersed strangers with a shared interest.
Since WhatsApp is phone number-based, as opposed to Facebook, members of these discussion groups already know one another because they may have swapped phone numbers or at the very least provided their numbers with the group admin. The phone numbers will only be made visible to admins and members of the same sub-groups as you; they will remain concealed from the rest of the Community.
This aims to strike a compromise between users’ demands for privacy and the necessity of enabling communication amongst group members. For instance, even if you don’t know every parent on your child’s sports team personally, you’re probably at ease talking to them in a small group setting that might be a part of the larger school community.
In addition, WhatsApp Communities are concealed, in contrast to Facebook Groups, which may be found on the site. You must be asked to join; there won’t be a search or discovery option available.
