WhatsApp Communities and Group Updates: A New Hub for Themed Conversations

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WhatsApp has introduced Communities, a new hub within the messaging app designed to gather conversation groups around a common theme or shared interest. Examples include school activities, neighborhood associations, and other local programs, all brought together in one centralized space.

WhatsApp Communities serves as a dedicated area where users can organize chats by topic. This helps highlight the most important messages and broadcast the latest news to members with ease.

Each community comes with its own name, such as the name of a school or a neighborhood association. It is configured with a cover image, a profile photo, and a descriptive summary. A roster of groups appears beneath the profile image, with each group linked to the broader community.

A designated administrator is responsible for forming and managing the community, selecting groups to include, creating new ones, or incorporating existing groups. This person controls chats, participants, and the shared content within the community.

An example is a school community where the administrator oversees it and shares key updates with all parents. Within the same Community, separate groups can be created for specific grade levels, extracurricular activities, or volunteer opportunities, allowing targeted discussions while keeping the overall space organized.

Controls and privacy

Users can decide who may invite them to join a community, mirroring the existing controls for group chats. In addition, participants have tools to report abusive content, block accounts, or leave communities if needed.

Although groups enable lively conversations among members, administrators can also orchestrate mass communications by sending messages to everyone within the Community.

The platform emphasizes the distinct nature of Communities. Discovering new Communities is restricted, and messages can be forwarded only within a single group at a time, rather than the previous limit of five forwards.

Conversations within Communities remain protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only members of the relevant groups can access their content. As an added precaution, participant phone numbers are hidden from the broader Community, though they will be visible to the admin and fellow group members.

Communities have been announced, but their rollout will be gradual. In a press briefing attended by Europa Press, the company stated that the feature is under testing and will first launch in select countries before becoming available globally in the coming months.

What’s new in groups

Concurrent with the Communities announcement, WhatsApp also shared updates for Groups. A new set of features is expected to include responses to messages in the near future.

WhatsApp will also support files up to 2GB for sending and receiving. The total number of participants in voice calls will rise to 32, and administrators will gain a tool to remove false or problematic messages, helping to keep discussions healthier and more productive.

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