{"id":457503,"date":"2022-08-23T16:11:20","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T14:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=457503"},"modified":"2022-08-23T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T14:13:29","slug":"big-whatsapp-groups-update-around-the-corner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/457503-big-whatsapp-groups-update-around-the-corner.html","title":{"rendered":"Big WhatsApp groups update around the corner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp has started rolling out its new Communities group feature to users of its Android beta app, <a href=\"https:\/\/wabetainfo.com\/whatsapp-beta-for-android-2-22-19-3-whats-new\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>WABetaInfo reports<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The upcoming overhaul of the app&#8217;s groups was first <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/smartphones\/421914-big-changes-for-whatsapp-groups.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>reported in October 2021<\/strong><\/a>, with various pieces of code and in-development screenshots of the feature posted online since then.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/smartphones\/441344-whatsapp-announces-communities-and-big-changes-to-groups.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>WhatsApp confirmed<\/strong><\/a> the Communities update alongside several significant changes to groups in April 2022 but did not provide a launch date for the former.<\/p>\n<p>The first release of Communities on WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.19.3 suggests the company is in its final testing stages before launching it on the official app.<\/p>\n<p>Communities will allow group admins to create one large, overarching group with multiple sub-groups for different topics or interest groups.<\/p>\n<p>For example, users will be able to create one big school group with sub-groups for each grade or extracurricular activity.<\/p>\n<p>Admins can then also send announcements to the entire group to reach all users.<\/p>\n<p>The screenshot below from WABetaInfo shows that the Communities section of the app will get its own dedicated app next to &#8220;Chats&#8221;, replacing the camera shortcut.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-457621\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"893\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities.jpeg 2293w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities-358x400.jpeg 358w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities-477x533.jpeg 477w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities-768x857.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities-1376x1536.jpeg 1376w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities-1834x2048.jpeg 1834w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/WhatsApp-Communities-1200x1340.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The addition of Communities will give WhatsApp similar functionality to Telegram&#8217;s Channels.<\/p>\n<p>The latter has been popular with large community groups who want to communicate on various topics, including neighbourhood watches, events, and general socialising.<\/p>\n<p>WhatsApp&#8217;s previous announcement of Communities explained it would include the following features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Conversations in Communities remain end-to-end encrypted.<\/li>\n<li>Phone numbers will be visible to Community admins.<\/li>\n<li>Your phone number will become visible to members of the same groups as you but otherwise remain hidden.<\/li>\n<li>Admins can add existing groups to the Community and unlink groups.<\/li>\n<li>Admins can remove individual members from the Community entirely.<\/li>\n<li>Group admins can delete inappropriate or abusive chats and media for all group members.<\/li>\n<li>Users can control who is allowed to add them to a Community.<\/li>\n<li>Communities will be private. No search or discovery option like Telegram.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/smartphones\/457005-more-than-a-third-of-iphone-users-want-to-switch-to-android-study.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">More than a third of iPhone users want to switch to Android \u2014 Study<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp&#8217;s big update for groups \u2014 dubbed Communities \u2014 seems to be closing in on release. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":450880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[161,73842,2594,74114,50825],"class_list":["post-457503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-facebook","tag-meta-platforms","tag-whatsapp","tag-whatsapp-communities","tag-whatsapp-groups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457629,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457503\/revisions\/457629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}