WhatsApp Communities, the messaging app's upcoming feature aimed at larger discussions like WhatsApp groups is now available for Beta users.
WhatsApp announced WhatsApp Communities feature back in April which revealed the new feature will come with 32-person video calls, a 2GB file sharing limit and emoji reactions. Now WhatsApp communities feature is available for WhatsApp Beta users.
WhatsApp Communities - what is it?
Mark Zuckerberg called this new WhatsApp feature a "major evolution of WhatsApp". Meta has this to say regarding this new feature: "Communities on WhatsApp will enable people to bring together separate groups under one umbrella with a structure that works for them. That way people can receive updates sent to the entire Community and easily organize smaller discussion groups on what matters to them. "
WhatsApp communities can be seen as the next evolution of WhatsApp groups. And Meta wants to capitalize on users using WhatsApp groups for practically everything nowadays.
As you can see from the above screenshot from WABetaInfo, Communities will get a separate tab on WhatsApp. So you'll know if the new feature is available on your WhatsApp when you open it. If you are on WhatsApp beta and you still don't get the Communities feature, you can try killing the app and opening it again.
If the Communities feature is available on your account, you can start creating Community by adding up to 10 groups. These groups are called 'sub-groups' and it supports up to 512 participants.
A community member can join any of the sub-groups to join based on their interests. When you create a new community, a new group is automatically created, the announcement group.
It is reported that WhatsApp is working on hiding the phone numbers of users in Communities. But as of now, the phone numbers will be visible on Communities.
The right step for WhatsApp?
WhatsApp for many of us is now all about groups. Sometimes, I miss out on many personal messages because my WhatsApp has more and more updates from WhatsApp groups.
Organizing all the groups like this on a single tab and separating personal chats is a welcome move.
As of now, it is available in WhatsApp Beta version 2.22.19.3. If you haven't updated to the latest version, update it to get the new feature. If you are not in WhatsApp beta, join the beta version from Play Store to receive the new feature.
