Warning for ALL WhatsApp users – your group chats are changing forever
WHATSAPP is testing a few big changes to the app – including massively tweaking how group chats work.
The wildly popular chat app is constantly adding new features, and one of them is called Communities.
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Communities are basically big groups that contain WhatsApp group chats within them.
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The brand new feature called Communities has been in development for months.
But the feature was recently spotted in testing on iPhone by the sleuths at WABetaInfo who mine the beta version of WhatsApp for exciting changes.
Each Community is like a giant “group” for your existing WhatsApp Groups.
Groups are one of the most popular ways to chat inside the Facebook-owned app.
But having multiple Groups can sometimes be chaotic – and hard to keep track of.
When it’s rolled out, it will let you message multiple groups at once.
For instance, you could have a Work Community that would have lots of smaller Groups inside.
Or maybe your local area would have a Community, which splits into separate Groups for schooling and complaining about neighbourhood issues.
“It is a private place where group admins have more control over some groups on WhatsApp, available in a future update of the app,” said WABetaInfo.
“It is like a group chat, and group admins are able to link other groups in the Community.”
WABetaInfo added: “It will be possible to reach everyone at once by sending messages to all participants of those groups linked to the community.”
Sadly Meta-owned WhatsApp hasn’t confirmed when this feature will roll out to the general public.
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That’s not all!
The tech investigators at WABetaInfo also revealed a number of other features currently in development or testing…
- Users being able to contact businesses without sharing their phone number
- The ability to save disappearing messages
- Searching messages by date
- More prominent privacy settings
- A new camera shortcut
- Large animated orange heart emoji
If you want to try the latest features first, consider following our guide below to join the WhatsApp beta.
How to join WhatsApp beta
To download WhatsApp beta for your smartphone you need to go to Google Play on your Android and search for WhatsApp.
Scroll down the page until you see “Become a Beta Tester”.
Tap the “I’m In” button and then click “Join” to confirm.
Now all you have to do is wait for the update to the beta version of the app.
Joining the WhatsApp beta on iPhone is more difficult, and has limited capacity.
Follow Apple’s guide here.
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