Ever since Zuckerberg announced that they would arrive sometime in 2022, users have been speculating about it. WhatsApp communities want us to relate to our environment and our causes in new ways. This is what we know about the new update that comes to the messaging app.
It was in April that we talked in depth about the communities. At that time the revelation had been leaking and, from Meta, they wanted to face the information with real data and specific specifications. Here all the info about the new feature.
In case you don’t remember, a WhatsApp community is a place where you can find groups related to your interestsand it is possible to join it using a community invite link from an administrator, or you can be added manually.
Today, WhatsApp releases WhatsApp for Android 2.22.19.3 beta update which finally brings a feature that we have been waiting for a long time: the possibility of creating a community. Of course, by a few testers.
As you can see from this screenshot, it is very easy to understand if the feature is already available in your WhatsApp account: just check if the communities tab appears instead of the camera tab.
If the communities tab is available, you can now start creating a community by adding up to 10 groups: these groups are called “subgroups” and support up to 512 participants.
A member of the community can choose which subgroup to join based on your personal preferences, and you can leave a subgroup without having to leave the community. Community administrators can also deactivate a community if they no longer want to use it, and other members can report the community to WhatsApp if it violates their terms of service.
After creating a community, WhatsApp automatically creates a new group: the ad group. Thanks to the announcement group, community administrators can send messages that are always visible to all members of the community.
For now, WhatsApp is working on hiding phone numbers in the subgroups of a communityso that other members of the community cannot see your phone number.
Unfortunately, this privacy feature is not included in this “first version” of WhatsApp Communitiesso we should expect it to be released in the future, but there are no more details available right now, such as the release date.
Note that some users may receive the 2.22.19.2 update from the Play Store instead of the 2.22.19.3 beta version, which is also supported by communities.
But even if you’ve installed a supported update, it doesn’t mean you can start a community today: WhatsApp is launching a very small test for certain beta testers.
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