What you need to know
- WhatsApp is rolling out Communities to users worldwide.
- Users can expect to see the new feature on their WhatsApp accounts in the coming months.
- The Meta-owned messaging app also introduces the ability to ‘create a poll’ in conversations.
WhatsApp first unveiled Communities early this April, intending to bring together various groups/neighborhoods under a single roof. And starting today, the rollout has been official across the globe, and everyone will be getting the new feature on their WhatsApp accounts in the coming months.
The Meta-owned messaging app has announced that various types of communities will be able to connect multiple groups under one place fully organized on WhatsApp. This includes neighborhoods, parents at a school, and colleagues at a workplace. After the latest rollout, WhatsApp users on Android phones can witness the new Communities tab on top of their chats, while iOS users can find it at the bottom of the app.
Users can bring their existing groups under one community or create a new one from scratch.
“Once you’re in a community, you can easily switch between available groups to get the information you need, when you need it, and admins can send important updates to everyone in the Community,” says WhatsApp in the announcement post.
The messaging platform is said to have worked with over 50 organizations across 15 countries to build the Communities feature by matching their requirements. By taking the necessary feedback, WhatsApp intends to bring more features to the new functionality in the coming months.
WhatsApp further suggests that the new Communities will follow a higher level of security that includes end-to-end encryption akin to other conversations on the platform.
WhatsApp has always been one of the popular messaging services competing with rivals like Telegram, and Signal, to name a few. The messaging platform is also introducing a few more features next to Communities to tackle the competition.
The interesting one is being able to create a poll in conversations on WhatsApp. Users can now create polls, which is a helpful feature, particularly in groups. WhatsApp users can also add up to 32 people in a video call, limited to only eight before. Likewise, admins can add up to 1024 members in groups, a significant step from 512 members before.
Recently, WhatsApp introduced emoji reactions in chats, next to larger file sharing and admin delete options in a group. These are said to be pretty handy for groups and the new Communities feature.
