WhatsApp has officially launched its new discussion group feature, Communities • TechCrunch

Today, WhatsApp officially launches Communities New feature offers larger and more organized discussion groupsTest takers who have never taken the test before earlier this year.These communities are designed to aid clubs, schools, and private groups in communicating better and staying organized. The opinion.

The communities can offer end-to-end encryption and support groups of up 1024 users.

Some of these features were created for the communities. Like emoji reactionsThen there’s the Share large files (up to 2 GB) and the ability to Admins to delete messagesThey were already on the WhatsApp platform before today’s launch. The company claims that WhatsApp will now support surveys, video chats with 32 people and larger group sizes outside of community settings.

Initial comparisons to Facebook groups may be made as the new feature supports file sharing, management functions, subgroups, and file sharing. WhatsApp groups can be used by people who may already be in touch with each other. Facebook groups are often used only by strangers who share the same interests. WhatsApp is phone number-based, so people who join these discussion forums may already know each other through having exchanged numbers or shared their numbers with the admin. However, phone numbers are hidden from the public and visible only to administrators and members of the same subgroups.

This is meant to strike a delicate balance between users’ desire for privacy and the need to let other members of the group access you. Although you may not be able to meet every parent on your child’s sports team, you will likely feel comfortable interacting with them in a particular group setting that may be part of the entire school community.

WhatsApp communities cannot be found on Facebook, but they can be hidden. Search and Discover won’t be available. You must be invited to join.

Existing group chat administrators will be able, at launch, to move their group into Communities if they wish, or to re-create their community as a whole. Administrators have the ability to add people to groups and can send invite links that allow other members to join the community.

Communities are organized using one set of announcements which alert everyone to the most important messages. Members can only communicate with administrators in small subgroups. This will prevent members being bombarded with messages about events and groups unrelated to their own. Members might create a subgroup to help with a volunteer project, or for planning. Some people just want to chat.

Launching communities could pose a challenge to other apps that have become popular for private and large-group communications, such as Telegram or Signal, as well standard messaging platforms like iMessage, and apps targeting schools or organizations like GroupMe, Band and TalkingPoints.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, also confirmed the news in an announcement encryptionThe company describes certain aspects of the Communities feature as “aiming to elevate enterprise communication with an level of privacy and security that isn’t found anywhere else”

He stated that “alternatives available today require trusting software companies or applications with a copy their messages – we believe they deserve a higher level of security than end-to-end encryption provides.”

Credits:WhatsApp

There are still concerns that communities such as this could encourage illegal or dangerous behaviours, similar to what Facebook groups allow. healthThen there’s the Electoral disinformationIn recent years, WhatsApp has been able to thrive, which in turn has fuelled the fires that led, for example, to the January 6 riots at Capitol. WhatsApp’s attempts to stop such things are limited as it says it will rely upon unencrypted information regarding the community, such “name, description, and user reports”, to determine whether action is required.

According to the company, if it discovers that a group is being used for child sexual abuse material distribution, coordination of violence or human tracking, it will ban the community members and individual officials, disband or ban all members of the community, depending on the circumstances. The company stated that messages that have been sent will only be allowed to be forwarded to one person at a time. This is to prevent misinformation spreading.

The company is working to rebuild its privacy reputation. backlashLast year’s difficult-to-understand policy updates caught the attention a few. Anti-competitive authoritiesThen there’s the regulatory agenciesAll countries, including the European Union and India, allow it. WhatsApp later clarified its policies and stated that launching communities would not require a new policy update.

To get early feedback, communities were partnered with more than 50 organizations from 15 countries. August WhatsApp confirmed that it has rolled out the featureA few testers, but no release date.

Today, the feature will spread to the wider WhatsApp user base. It will reach all WhatsApp users worldwide over the next few month on both iOS or Android.