Meta wants to expand WhatsApp with the new group chat function “Communities”. This innovation gives users the opportunity to organize activities within a coherent network . There will be a beta phase beforehand and then the innovations will be rolled out worldwide.

Already in 2021 there was speculation about this new feature , which will allow administrators to create messages and a link to join, invite and add other users. Administrators should also be able to decide directly which WhatsApp groups become part of their community.

Meta writes about it

“Organizations like schools, local clubs and nonprofits now rely on WhatsApp to communicate securely and get things done - especially since the pandemic forced us all to find creative ways to work together while we were apart. Based on the amount of feedback we've received, we think there's more we can do to make it easier for people to have these busy conversations within these types of groups.

This is where communities come into play. Communities on WhatsApp allow users to bring separate groups together under one roof with a structure that suits them. This allows users to receive updates broadcast to the entire community and easily organize smaller discussion groups around the topics that are important to them. Communities will also include powerful new tools for administrators, including announcement messages sent to everyone and control over which groups can be included.

We believe communities make it easier for school leaders to bring all parents in the school together to share important news and set up groups for specific classes, extracurricular activities or volunteer work.

We're also making a number of improvements to the way groups work on WhatsApp - whether they're part of a community or not. We believe these improvements will help people connect in new ways and reduce congestion in larger chats. These features will be rolled out in the coming weeks so users can try them out before communities are ready.

Screenshot: Meta / WhatsApp communities
Screenshot: Meta / WhatsApp communities

Communities are inherently private, and that's why we will continue to protect messages with end-to-end encryption. This security technology has never been more necessary to protect people's privacy and security. Close groups - schools, religious community members, even businesses - want and need to be able to have safe and private conversations without WhatsApp monitoring their every word.

While other apps develop chats for hundreds of thousands of people, we focus on supporting the groups that are part of our daily lives. Communities on WhatsApp are still in their early stages, and developing the new features that support them will be one of our main focuses for the coming year. We can’t wait to get communities into people’s hands and look forward to hearing people’s feedback.”

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Mark Zuckerberg: “Today we begin testing a major development of WhatsApp that we have been working on: WhatsApp Communities.”

Zuckerberg himself published this information on his Facebook page on April 14, 2022 / 4:58 p.m.:

Further innovation

Apart from the communities, Meta is releasing other features. Users can react to WhatsApp messages with emojis and group admins should be able to directly remove “false information or problematic messages” from the chats, which we at Mimikama are of course very happy about.

Also read: WhatsApp fraud: Anyone can easily fall for the scam

Source: Meta


If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:

📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.

Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!

* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!


Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )