WHATSAPP LAUNCHES COMMUNITIES GROUP ORGANIZER FEATURE, UPGRADES VIDEO CALLS

Fri 04 November 2022:

Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that WhatsApp’s “communities” feature will come soon. According to Meta, the communities functionality is now available to all users everywhere.

Since the Communities feature’s introduction earlier this year, WhatsApp has been testing it in several locations. In essence, it acts as a collection of groups, and every member of every group will get a message sent to one community.

WhatsApp Communities strives to bring together employers, school parents, and local communities. Users will be able to join to several groups under a single umbrella in order to organize group conversations on WhatsApp. The company has worked with more than 50 organizations from 15 different countries to establish Communities.

The app will now also allow chat groups to have up to 1,024 users, much higher than the 256 participants restriction it had until recently, according to a company statement.

WhatsApp rivals, including Telegram and Discord, allow thousands of members in group chats.

Other feature releases include 32-person video calling as well as in-chat polls, a common fixture on social media apps, including Meta’s Facebook and Twitter.

How to use Communities?

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 crucial updates to everyone in the community.

Unlike Facebook Groups, which can be discoverable on the platform, WhatsApp Communities are hidden. There will not be a search and discovery feature available — you have to be invited to join.

Purpose of Communities

WhatsApp wants to improve the platform’s capacity for broadcasting. It states that this will serve as a benchmark for business communications. Even with the new functionality, WhatsApp insists that it provides a high level of privacy and security. End-to-end encryption, according to WhatsApp, will protect messages and data from even the corporation itself.

Apart from Communities, WhatsApp also enhanced three major features.

32-person video calls

The maximum number of participants in a video call on WhatsApp is now 32. The platform will be used more frequently for organisational purposes thanks to this capability. WhatsApp will be able to compete with platforms like Zoom.

WhatsApp Group Size increased to 1024

WhatsApp is increasing the maximum number of users per group. The limit has increased from 512 to 1024. The larger group size will enable WhatsApp to compete with services like Telegram.

WhatsApp Group in-Chat Polls

Additionally, WhatsApp is launching a new method for conducting group polls. Polls can be a useful tool to vote on significant issues within the group, especially as the number of groups is significantly growing and even with Communities.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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