WhatsApp launches 'communities', upgrades video calls, increases group size

The launch of WhatsApp's 'communities' feature has been announced by Mark Zuckerberg. As per Meta, communitiesfeature will now be accessible to all users worldwide.

Since its announcement earlier this year, WhatsApp has been testing the Communities feature in several regions. In essence, it functions as a collection of groups, and sending a message to one community will reach every member of every group.

WhatsApp Communities aims to unite local communities, school parents, and employers. In order to arrange group conversations on WhatsApp, users will be able to connect to numerous groups under a single umbrella. To create Communities, the business has collaborated with more than 50 organisations across 15 nations.

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.

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.

(with inputs from agencies )