WhatsApp is introducing a number of new features, the most notable of which is “Communities,” a new tool that will aid in group management.
A community is essentially a collection of groups. Users can build a community by joining groups with similar interests. Community managers can then manage the groups inside the community and send messages to all groups at the same time. Individual chats linked to that group can so continue while communications affecting all groups are received at the same time. End-to-end encryption will be supported by communities.
In terms of visibility, WhatsApp has stated that, unlike “other apps,” it will not include the option to search for or find new communities. In an effort to restrict the spread of disinformation within Community groups, the business will also reduce the ability to forward messages from the existing limit of five to only one group at a time.If WhatsApp gets aware of unlawful, violent, or hateful activities in a community, it will ban individual community members or admins and delete the community.
WhatsApp has also improved the way individual groups work, whether or not they are part of a community.
WhatsApp creates communities to bring like-minded people together. Emoji responses for messages are now available in groups, allowing members to respond to a given message without having to send separate emoji messages.
Messages in a group can be deleted by admins, and they will be wiped from everyone’s device. File Sharing is being updated to accommodate files of up to 2 GB in size. Finally, up to 32 people can participate in one-touch phone calls.
The new features will be rolled out to a restricted group of users this week before gradually expanding to all others.
