WhatsApp introducing large-group chats feature

Meta officially launches ‘Communities’ for Whatsapp. Larger groups and companies may now chat more effectively thanks to the new feature.

Additionally, up to 32 people can now participate in video calls, which may be useful for a large video chat, the social media giant stated on Thursday.

In April, emoji message reactions and the communities feature—answer to Telegram’s Groups and Channels sections—were first introduced.

Users of the chat application owned by Meta will now be able to “bring together separate groups under one umbrella with a structure that works for them,” according to Meta.

This can include methods for coordinating across communities or school districts.

“It [communities] makes groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels and more,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

“All secured by end-to-end encryption so your messages stay private.”

You’ll have access to a variety of new features within WhatsApp communities, including the ability to create more discussion groups and get updates broadcast to the entire community.

Moreover, new tools for administrators will be available; including the ability to select which groups can join the community and send announcements to the whole group.

In addition to communities, WhatsApp is also rolling out other new features that can be used in both groups and communities, such as in-chat polls for group decision making, the aforementioned 32-person video calls and groups that allow up to 1,024 members.

According to Meta, Communities is launching publically and will be made available to everyone over the next months.