What are WhatsApp Communities and how can you use them? If you run any kind of organisation, a school, a business, or even a non-profit organisation, and use WhatsApp groups for organising or information dissemination, there has been no way, till now, to structure the multiple groups within your organisation. What you had were multiple groups running side-by-side.
WhatsApp Communities enable you to bring together and organise these separate groups under one umbrella with a structure. So, you can create a WhatsApp Community for the entire organisation and organise smaller discussion groups based on departments or objectives. Project managers within business organisations will also love the new WhatsApp Communities features, as it provides a more structured way to manage their different teams and activities, and indeed everyone working on the project.
For example, a club can now create a Community and then have their Exco group, social group, and finance committee group, all exist under that umbrella Community instead of existing as independent groups. Also, WhatsApp Communities will make it easier for a school principal to manage the multiple groups that are necessary for the running of the school (e.g. teachers’ group, parents’ group, school bus drivers’ group, etc) under the school’s umbrella.
New Features That Come With WhatsApp Communities
Along with Communities, WhatsApp has added some new features to Group chats and administration. They include:
- Reactions – Emoji reactions are coming to WhatsApp so people can quickly share their opinion without flooding chats with new messages.
- Admin Delete – Group admins will be able to remove errant or problematic messages from everyone’s chats.
- File Sharing – We’re increasing file sharing to support files up to 2 gigabytes so people can easily collaborate on projects.
- Larger Voice Calls – We’ll introduce one-tap voice calling for up to 32 people with all new design for those times when talking live is better than chatting.
Are WhatsApp Communities encrypted?
WhatsApp says that End-to-end encryption is built into WhatsApp Communities, so businesses and organisations that choose to use the feature continue to enjoy the same level of security that has been available on other WhatsApp features. Users are able to have secure and private conversations without WhatsApp monitoring their every word. Do note that screenshots of WhatsApp Communities communications can be taken by anyone.
How do you get WhatsApp Communities?
This new feature will is rolling out in an app update over the next few weeks, so you will get it as soon as the update gets to your app. Keep updating your WhatsApp.
How can I find Communities on my WhatsApp?
The Communities feature will appear as a new tab (like Status and Calls) in the app,
Who needs WhatsApp Communities?
Businesses, schools, religious organisations, local clubs, and other non-profit organizations that operate multiple WhatsApp groups will find WhatsApp Communities useful for keeping those groups under one structure, as well as for publishing updates, notices and announcements to all their stakeholders at a go, instead of having to publish information piecemeal, group by group.
If you are responsible for running any form of organisation or group activities and currently run multiple groups, you should be excited about WhatsApp Communities and put it to use as soon as it becomes available to you. Should you have any questions about this new feature, please ask in the comment section below and we will do our best to provide you with useful answers.