WhatsApp to roll out "Communities" feature to connect groups

California: The Meta-owned messaging app, WhatsApp, said on Thursday about a big update of a Communities feature that would help users to connect in the groups that matter to them. The update will allow users to have multiple groups together, allowing them to organise group conversations, NDTV reported, citing a statement by the app.

The announcement was made by Meta owner, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself. He said that they are launching the Communities, which is supposed to make groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels etc. The update will include polls and 32-person video calling, all secured by end-to-end encryption to keep the messages private, Zuckerberg said.

The new update allows users to bring separate groups under a single "Community" and organise group conversations on the platform.

The statement by WhatsApp said that users could tap on the new Communities tab at the top of their chats on Android and at the bottom on iOS. They will be able to start a new Community or add existing groups, and inside a community, they could switch between available groups. Admins could communicate with everyone in the Community, it said.

The statement further read, "With Communities, we're aiming to raise the bar for how organisations communicate with a level of privacy and security not found anywhere else. The alternatives available today require trusting apps or software companies with a copy of their messages - and we think they deserve the higher level of security provided by end-to-end encryption," NDTV quoted.

Further, on Thursday, WhatsApp launched three new features: in-chat polls, 32-person video calls, and groups with up to 1024 users. It said that these features would be helpful, particularly for Communities. It has been working with more than 50 organisations across 15 countries to create Communities and has received encouraging feedback so far.