WhatsApp Launches New ‘Communities’ Group Chat

Earlier this year, WhatsApp announced it was testing a new Communities group chat feature and today, the feature has finally gone live, which changes how people connect in the groups that matter to them.

Communities such as neighborhoods, parents at school, or workplaces can now connect multiple groups together under one umbrella to organize group conversations on WhatsApp.

“We’ve been working with over 50 organizations in 15 countries to build Communities to meet their needs. We’re excited that the feedback we’ve heard so far is these new tools are helping groups like these better organize and achieve their goals. There’s a lot more we plan to build and we’ll keep adding features over the coming months”

To get started, tap on the new Communities tab at the top of your chats on Android and at the bottom on iOS. From there you can start a new Community from scratch or add existing groups.

Once you’re in a community, you can easily switch between available groups to get the information you need, when you need it, and admins can send important updates to everyone in the Community.

The messaging service is also releasing three more features today i.e. the ability to create in-chat polls, 32-person video calling, and groups with up to 1024 users.

Just like emoji reactions, larger file sharing, and admin delete, these features can be used in any group.

WhatsApp says it is starting to roll out the new Communities feature globally today and it will be available to everyone over the next few months.