For the first time in a while, Meta’s head Mark Zuckerberg revealed what’s ahead for WhatsApp.
Through his post and on the official WhatsApp blog, the platform officially announced Communities – a new feature where relevant groups are brought together for being engaged in a better way. Also, some of the features currently in testing are also confirmed by WhatsApp.
WhatsApp Communities is Coming
To keep up with the pace, WhatsApp has been testing a lot of new features lately. These include the increased file sharing limit, message reactions, new drawing tools, etc. Most of these features are now officially announced by Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp in its latest blog post.
As per it, a new Communities feature is coming to all WhatsApp users that will let people form relevant groups under a new tab. This is particularly helpful for those admins who should pass updates to a number of groups, and keep track of many.
For example, a school principal can make different groups for parents based on their children’s class/grade, and pass important updates whenever needed. Also, a society president or a secretary informs the neighborhood about the latest happenings in the community.
This feature is currently under development and will be coming to beta users soon. More features include;
- Bigger group calls
WhatsApp is increasing the group call limit from 8 to 32 participants in the future. Although, this should be supported by all the participant’s devices. - Message reactions
Users can react to messages with several emojis, which we have noted earlier in detail. - Large File Sharing
WhatsApp is currently testing the ability to send files up to 2GB with some people in Argentina. This could be expanded to more people in more countries. - Admin Delete for everyone
Maximizing the power of admin for good, WhatsApp will let admins delete messages for everyone in groups for moderation reasons. - Silently leave groups
Users will be allowed to exit groups silently, without notifying anyone. - New group size
WhatsApp will increase the current group capacity from a maximum of 256 participants to more, and add more tools to admins and users in the future.
