WhatsApp is an integral part of our lives today. In most parts of Asia, WhatsApp has become an essential communication tool which has replaced the traditional messaging apps. iMessage in this part of the world has nothing against the likes of WhatsApp and the likes of the messaging app.
We rely on WhatsApp not just for communicating and chatting with our friends. We rely on the platform at work as well. The amount of group chats we have just for work can be quite unreal.
WhatsApp recognises the need for their platform, especially in the world we live in today. They also recognise the need for their platform to become something even more than just a way to text your other half that you are buying dinner. So, they introduced Communities.
What is Communities? It is very much like WhatsApp groups really, except that it is also not. It is a platform for organisations to organise on. It is a platform for managing groups from a single place on WhatsApp.
You can think of Communities as a sort of Forum for any organisation that you are a part of. There can be different conversations that happen in that forum (chat groups). You can also address the entire forum with a single message when you need to. It is like being a part of a larger conversation and have smaller side discussions without interrupting the larger group.
For the Admin of their communities, they get even more powerful tools to work with. You can make announcements to the entire community and address everyone from every smaller group whenever you want. If you only need the message to be spread across several select groups, you can do that too. Admins can even control the things that are being shared in each group if they find it inappropriate, much like forum moderators.
The example that WhatsApp gave in their announcement is of that of a school and the principal running the show. Communities can be much more than that though. It could be a collective of multiple charity efforts, an enthusiast community organising several events, even a company having separate departments as chat groups and project work groups.
With Communities, there are also several updates that is brought about the make WhatsApp even more powerful. Audio calls can now include up to 32 people. You can react to messages from your friends in groups too. At the same time, file sharing has been upped to 2 GB at a time, which is a blessing in the creative industry, or when you are trying to share full resolution images. Admin delete will also be introduced in regular group chats.
WhatsApp Communities is not available just yet. It is coming soon, according to WhatsApp. The feature updates that will be attached to Communities will be introduced to WhatsApp before the Communities update though. That also means you might get to try out some of the new features soon to get yourself ready for the Communities update. You can find out more about WhatsApp Communities from their announcement.
