WhatsApp continues to roll out its latest feature across the world and it’s a great update to bring everyone together. Communities is a new way to organize your WhatsApp groups under one umbrella and connect all members of the subgroup, which can be very useful for larger organizations. Here’s everything you need to know about WhatsApp communities and how to use the new feature when it’s available.
Read more: How to add, manage and remove someone from a WhatsApp group
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WhatsApp Communities allows users to organize and consolidate groups in a single space. A three person icon represents the new Communities tab. Once in a community, you can toggle between all available groups using the subgroup picker, and admins can send updates to all community members.
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What are WhatsApp communities?
WhatsApp communities are a new way to organize your WhatsApp groups. You can think of Communities as one big group for your WhatsApp group chats. While a group is a shared chat with multiple people, a community can contain multiple groups and all subgroup members.
Communities allow WhatsApp to compete with programs like Slack or Teams. Larger organizations use these programs to connect all their sub-departments and make sure everyone is on the same page. In the same way, community managers can reach all members with essential updates by sending out announcements, and community members can stay connected by exploring and chatting in the groups that matter to them. The advantage that WhatsApp claims to have is its security guarantee provided by end-to-end encryption.
How do WhatsApp communities work?
WhatsApp communities are made up of administrators and group members. Administrators can create a community with up to 50 groups, which can have up to 5,000 members. Only admins can send messages in the ad group to notify all team members.
Both admins and team members can participate in chats focused on different topics. All community members can switch between group chats using the subgroup selector next to the chat name.
WhatsApp protects all messages with end-to-end encryption so that only members of the respective groups can see them and no one else. This security protects confidential conversations between organizations, workplaces, and private groups. Additionally, member phone numbers are hidden from the community at large and are only visible to community admins and others in the same group.
How to open a WhatsApp community
To get started, tap on the new communities tab at the top of your chats on Android. On iOS, it will be at the bottom. You can then enter the community name, description, and profile photo.
The next step will be to add groups. You can Create a new group either Add an existing group. Please note that as a community admin, you can only add groups you’ve created, not groups you’re just a member of. You can create up to ten new groups, each with its own name and description.
Adam Birney / Android Authority
When you’re done adding or creating groups, click the green checkmark icon to create your community. Now you can invite new members, add more groups or post your first announcement welcoming everyone to the new community.
Read more: What is WhatsApp Business?
frequent questions
Communities are still rolling out and are currently available in limited countries. Make sure WhatsApp is up to date and check back to see when the feature is available in your area.
Once a community is created, the administrator can select Invite members to send them a unique invite link to join the community.
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