WhatsApp is apparently getting a new feature that is supposed to simplify communication with many contacts: communities. But how do these differ from conventional groups?
Meta is constantly working on expanding its own platforms. Now it’s WhatsApp’s turn and could soon get a new communities feature. At least that’s what Insider magazine reports WABeta Info. According to the industry experts, the communities should help group admins contact a large number of users and divide them into subgroups. WABeta Info explains:
[…] for example, a degree course can be considered a community, and all its teaching classes are groups included in this community.
Community leaders can send messages to all invited users in an end-to-end encrypted chat. However, the members of the communities are not able to send messages to everyone per se. This is a crucial difference to the groups, which could give the admins more control over the conversation within the community.
–
Communities: WhatsApp introduces new icon format
In addition to the fact that several small groups are grouped together in the communities, the new chat format also differs from the previous groups – the shape of the group picture. Unlike the icon for the previous groups or the personal profile pictures of the users: inside the communities icon is square with rounded corners. Whatsapp apparently accidentally launched this icon format for all users in October. A short time later, the profile pictures were round again. This indicates that the Meta Messenger has been working on the new feature for some time.
Wht? Nw dsign? pic.twitter.com/qw2iP1GVvB
— rizz (@__zzkk) October 11, 2021
In the future, admins will be able to invite selected contacts to the WhatApp communities via link or individual additions. The feature is currently still in the development phase and is not even available in the beta version of the messenger. When this will happen is still unclear.
