WhatsApp introduces Communities: Reveals new features for group chats; Check

WhatsApp is officially presenting on Thursday (14) the "Communities", described as a new way to bring together groups of people with the same interests and objectives.

The appeal had been in the testing phase since November 2021. In addition to this function, the messenger should also add several improvements to group chats.

Communities

Communities are a space where groups of people from the same institution or who share common interests are gathered under the same structure. Administrators will be able to send messages to different participating groups and will have access to new tools to control these organizations. Check:

In light of distance learning caused by the coronavirus pandemic, one of the examples cited by the company is the community of a school. In it, a principal can bring together parent and guardian groups, student classes, and other circles in a single Community.

Also in the example, the Community administrator can send important announcements in bulk, reminders about meetings, and create extracurricular activities with specific members, among several other possibilities.

Meta, developer of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, encourages users to report inappropriate content or even communities themselves if members of the organization make mentions of hate, sharing child abuse materials, human trafficking, and incitement to other types of crime.

All conversations and data shared within communities will be protected by WhatsApp end-to-end encryption. The messenger says small groups with common interests -- from schools to religious congregations -- "want and need" the privacy and security structured by the app's policies.

What's new for group chats

Meta is also announcing news for group chats, even if they don't join a Community. Approaching Telegram, WhatsApp will offer emoji reactions in conversation balloons and allow voice calls to make room for up to 32 people.

In addition, starting with the next major update, group administrators will be able to delete messages to all participants, preventing unpleasant or inappropriate content from being shared. In the same vein, WhatsApp says it will extend the file sharing limit to up to 2 GB.

All news will be made available to users soon. For now, the functions are in the limited testing phase to gather audience reviews before they are released in the official Android, iOS, Windows, and other platform app stores.

Do you believe that the new functions will be useful to your environment? Comment on your opinion!