Meta wants to expand its app with the group chat function “Communities”. This innovation gives users the opportunity to organize activities within a coherent network. Whatsapp wants to use the function to make communication easier, especially for schools, local clubs and non-profit organizations. First there will be a beta phase, after which the innovations will be available worldwide.
Speculations as early as 2021
As early as last year, there was speculation about the new feature, which will allow admins to create messages and a link to join, invite others and add them. Furthermore, administrators should be able to decide which Whatsapp groups become part of their community. Meta wants to test how many groups can be integrated during the beta phase.
According to Meta, as in Whatsapp groups, users will be able to decide for themselves who may add them to a community. It should also be possible to “silently” leave a group. To limit the flow of information, only community admins can send messages to all members. There will be a dedicated “Announcements Group” where administrators can post messages to thousands. Members can chat in smaller groups created or approved by admins. Meta wants to gradually increase the group size as the game progresses. The company also hinted that it will likely add a fundraising feature to Communities in the future.
Encrypted group calls
Not only the messages, but also voice calls taking place within the community should be end-to-end encrypted. In contrast to Signal with 40 possible participants, discussions with up to 32 people should be possible within a community. Members’ phone numbers are also hidden and only visible to administrators to avoid unwanted contacts.
More features
Aside from communities, Meta brings other features. In the future, users will be able to react to Whatsapp messages with emojis. Group admins should also be able to remove “false information or problematic messages” from the chats. In addition, you can soon share files with a size of up to 2 gigabytes in Whatsapp.
(mack)
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