4 min read
Whatsapp just launched a new major feature of Whatsapp in some regions and will soon launch globally, this new major feature is called “Communities”, and its role is quite similar to real-world communities. ‘Communities’, which offers bigger, more organized conversation groups that were in the testing for roughly half a year and now finally seeing the light of day. Communities introduce a number of new features to the messaging platform with the goal of enhancing communication and organization among businesses, clubs, schools, and other private groups.
The additional and new features that Communities will offer include admin controls, support for sub-groups and announcement groups, 32-person voice and video calls, larger file sharing, emoji reactions, and polls. The reason it is such a big concern is that making bigger groups was not possible for workplaces and institutions, so they opted Slack or Discord Now that the bigger group option is available on Whatsapp, Slack and Discord will definitely lose some traffic.
What Exactly is WhatsApp Communities and what is it used for?
Whatsapp Communities are a way to organize multiple group chats so that the discussion in individual groups remains focused on a particular thing but participants can easily switch between topics. You can, for example, create a Community for your neighborhood, then divide the discussion into individual groups – one for group activities, one for organizing chores, and so on. Each Community also has an Announcement group where moderators can share major news.
In a WhatsApp Community(with end-to-end encrypted communications), administrators can post updates for the whole community to see. The corporation first tested communities in April, and they are now being made available to everyone. Emoji reactions, massive file sharing (up to 2GB), and the option for administrators to remove messages are just a few of the features created for Communities that have already made their way to the WhatsApp platform before today’s debut. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said regarding this new update that;
“The alternatives available today require trusting apps or software companies with a copy of their messages – and we think they deserve the higher level of security provided by end-to-end encryption,”
Due to the fact that both the new feature and Facebook Groups enable features like sub-groups, file sharing, admin functionality, and more, there may initially be some parallels between the two. WhatsApp Communities, however, are designed to be used by people who may already be connected in the real world, unlike Facebook Groups. Because WhatsApp is phone number-based, as opposed to Facebook, members of these discussion groups already know one another because they may have swapped phone numbers or, at the very least, provided their numbers with the group admin.
The phone numbers will only be visible to admins and members of the same sub-groups as you; they will remain concealed from the community.
This aims to strike a compromise between users’ demands for privacy and the necessity of enabling communication among group members. For instance, even if you don’t know every parent on your child’s sports team personally, you’re probably at ease talking to them in a small group setting that might be a part of the larger school community.
WhatsApp Communities are concealed, unlike Facebook Groups, which may be found on the site. You must be asked to join; there won’t be a search or discovery option available.
Communities’ release could put pressure on other apps that have become popular for private and massive group communications, such as Telegram and Signal, as well as on established messaging services like iMessage and apps made specifically for businesses or educational institutions, such as GroupMe, Band, TalkingPoints, Remind, and others.
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