Meta has announced a number of features for WhatsApp, including the rollout of the new “Communities” feature for iOS and Android, which allows you to join multiple groups within a topic-related umbrella, such as schools, neighborhoods, and more.
In a blog post (opens in new tab)WhatsApp also expands the number of users you can add to a single group to 1024, in addition to the ability to make video calls with up to 32 people if needed.
Groups on Facebook have only grown in use in recent years, especially during the 2020 pandemic, and improvements have been made lately to try and make it a legitimate rival to Slack and Discord.
However, Communities can be the standout feature on WhatsApp for those who don’t like using Discord or Facebook Messenger to keep in touch with family and friends.
(Image credit: Ditching)
Communities seem to be the natural evolution of groups in WhatsApp – topics are constantly changing when you’re in groups, from games to movies and what sweets you’ve been eating for the past few hours. With the ability to be part of multiple groups within one community, you can chat with relevant people about more specific topics.
This can help if you’re a parent and need to keep up with updates for things like your kids’ school. Groups can exist in a “school” community for bus delays, school times, activities and more, without being part of one large group where you could miss out on important information.
However, there are also some new features that benefit both the groups you’ve been a member of for years and any new communities you join. Sharing files up to 2 GB can be a big help if you need to quickly share a large PDF, for example, while group admins can now delete posts from other users.
These improvements are a good step for WhatsApp, and while communities are slowly appearing on devices around the world, it would be great to see this also appear in the Windows, macOS and web apps to make the feature easier to access when that is necessary .