Meta to launch new WhatsApp features

Communities on WhatsApp will begin rolling out to users worldwide over the coming few months, according to a statement released by Meta today.

“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.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that WhatsApp has been developing Communities, a significant change to the way users would be able to connect in the groups that matter to them. In order to manage group talks on WhatsApp, communities like neighbourhoods, parents at a school, and employers can now join many groups under a single roof.

Users can access the new communities option at either the top of their chats on Android or the bottom of their chats on iOS. From there, users can either add already-existing groups or create a new Community from scratch. Users may quickly switch between accessible groups once they're in a community to acquire the information they need, when they need it, and administrators can deliver critical updates to everyone in the community.

With Communities, WhatsApp hopes to set a new standard for how businesses interact while providing a level of security and privacy unmatched by any other platform. The current solutions call for users to entrust software or app developers with a copy of their messages. WhatsApp considers that people should have a higher level of security provided by end-to-end encryption.

Three additional capabilities are also being made available by WhatsApp: in-chat polling, 32-person video calling, and groups with up to 1024 participants. These features, which can be used in any group and are similar to emoji reactions, larger file sharing, and admin delete, will be very useful for Communities.