WhatsApp rolls out new ‘Communities’ feature, alongside polls and massive video calls

The new tool will enable users to organise several group chats under a single overall topic

WhatsApp has launched its new “Communities” feature, along with polls, much bigger video calls and huge chats.

The Communities tool is intended to organise multiple group chats into one place: so that a school, neighbourhood or office could be joined together with a number of different chats. Administrators can then send messages to everyone in that community.

The feature was announced earlier this year and has been in testing since. It is now rolling out to the public, alongside the new features.

It will appear as a tab at the bottom of the app. From there, users can start a new community, or join existing ones.

The Communities feature will allow users to organise different group chats together under a single main topic (Meta/PA)

WhatsApp said that it had focused on “privacy and security” with the new feature, and said that it offered safety that was not “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,” it said, seemingly referring to alternatives such as Discord and Slack.

The feature is being rolled out as part of an update that will also allow users to create and take part in polls with their chats.

In addition, group video calling will now support up to 32 participants.

And WhatsApp said the maximum size of a group will now be 1,024 users. It is currently 512, after being gradually increased over time, though rival Telegram allows groups of up to 200,000 people.

“With Communities, we’re aiming to raise the bar for how organisations communicate with a level of privacy and security not found anywhere else,” WhatsApp said in a blog post announcing the rollout.

“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.

“Once you’re in a community, you can easily switch between available groups to get the information you need, when you need it, and admins can send important updates to everyone in the Community.”

Mark Zuckerberg, the head of WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, said: “Today we’re launching Communities on WhatsApp.

“It makes groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels, and more.

“We’re also rolling out polls and 32-person video calling too. All secured by end-to-end encryption so your messages stay private.”

WhatsApp said that it had been testing the feature with 50 organisations in 15 countries. It said there “more we plan to build and we’ll keep adding features over the coming months”.

Additional reporting by Press Association