WhatsApp communities - EXPLAINED: What it is and how it works

WhatsApp communities: Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta-owned WhatsApp, has announced that Communities on WhatsApp will start rolling out to users globally and will be available to everyone over the next few months. People will be able to connect on WhatsApp in the groups. Communities like neighborhoods, parents at a school, and workplaces can now connect multiple groups together under one umbrella to organize group conversations on WhatsApp.

"Today we're launching Communities on WhatsApp. It makes groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels, and more. We're also rolling out polls and 32 person video calling too. All secured by end to end encryption so your messages stay private.” Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Meta, said in a statement.

What is WhatsApp communities?

- Communities on WhatsApp will enable people to bring together separate groups under one umbrella with a structure that works for them.

- That way people can receive updates sent to the entire Community and easily organize smaller discussion groups on what matters to them. 

- Communities will also contain powerful new tools for admins, including announcement messages that are sent to everyone and control over which groups can be included.

To get started, users can tap on the new communities tab at the top of their chats on Android and at the bottom on iOS. From there, users will be able to start a new Community from scratch or add existing groups.

Once in a community, users can easily switch between available groups to get the information you need, when they need it, and admins can send important updates to everyone in the Community. 

WhatsApp communities features 

Reactions - Emoji reactions are coming to WhatsApp so people can quickly share their opinion without flooding chats with new messages.

Admin Delete - Group admins will be able to remove errant or problematic messages from everyone’s chats.

File Sharing – We’re increasing file sharing to support files up to 2 gigabytes so people can easily collaborate on projects.

Larger Voice Calls – We’ll introduce one-tap voice calling for up to 32 people with all new design for those times when talking live is better than chatting