It’s been a while since the original announcement in April, but WhatsApp’s Communities are now live.
Well, sort of.
In a blog post, the company said that Communities are starting to roll out on WhatsApp globally, but they will be available to everyone « over the next few months » (I’ve checked my WhatsApp apps and I don’t yet see the feature).
Communities are super-groups which can unite multiple groups and users over one topic. WhatsApp suggests that the feature would work best for neighborhoods, parents at a school, and workplaces.
If you did get the feature in your WhatsApp, you’ll see a new « Communities » tab on top (on Android) or at the bottom (on iOS). You can then start a new Community or add existing groups to a Community you’ve previously created.
WhatsApp points out that Communities are protected by end-to-end encryption, which is not the case with Slack and Discord, for example.
WhatsApp also recently added a few new unrelated features, including the ability to create polls. Groups have also been expanded to accommodate as many as 1,024 users, and video calls can now host 32 people.
