Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that the communities feature would be available to everyone globally in the coming months.
This feature, which has been in testing for several months, is finally making its way to WhatsApp, along with support for in-chat polls, 32-person video calls, and groups with up to 1,024 members.
Mark elaborated on the new communities feature, stating that WhatsApp Communities will provide admins with tools to organize conversations under one umbrella in a brand new tab.
The tab will appear at the top of your Android chats and the bottom of your iOS chats, and it will include options to assist admins in starting new Communities or adding existing groups to a Community. Users will be able to easily switch between groups within Communities, and administrators will be able to share important updates with all groups at once.
WhatsApp Communities aims to set a new standard for how businesses interact while providing security and privacy unrivalled by any other platform. Current solutions require users to give software or app developers a copy of their messages. End-to-end encryption, according to WhatsApp, provides a higher level of security than what is currently available.
Zuckerberg also confirmed that the latest WhatsApp update will include a couple of other in-development features. The update adds support for video calls with up to 32 participants, which was first mentioned by Zuckerberg when WhatsApp launched Call Links earlier this year. Support for 1,024 member groups, which was recently discovered, will be included in the latest update, as will the ability to create in-chat polls.
