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It's been a while since we reported that WhatsApp was developing the Reactions and Communities features, but now the company has finally officially announced both features.
According to a press release, the community feature will focus on organizations such as schools, local clubs and non-profit organizations. From the press release shows:
Communities on WhatsApp will allow people to bring different groups together under one roof with a structure that suits them. This will allow them to receive updates for the whole community and easily organize smaller discussion groups around the topics that matter to them. Communities will also include powerful new tools for admins, including announcements sent to everyone and control over which groups can be included.
WhatsApp: “Communities are still in their infancy”
In addition to communities, groups are also being revamped - whether they are part of a community or not - with audio calls for up to 32 people, reactions, file sharing up to 2GB, and the ability for the administrator to delete messages.
- Reactions – Emoji reactions are introduced in WhatsApp to allow people to quickly express their opinions without flooding the chat with new messages.
- Admin Delete – Group administrators can remove incorrect or problematic messages from all participants’ chats.
- File sharing – We’re expanding file sharing to support files up to 2 gigabytes, making it easier for participants to collaborate on projects.
- Bigger voice calls – We're introducing one-touch voice calling for up to 32 people, with a completely new design for those moments when it's better to talk live than chat.
The company's CEO, Will Cathcart, announced that Reactions will initially consist of just six emojis, but, as WABetaInfo discovered, will evolve into something similar to Reactions on Instagram. WhatsApp says that "communities are still in their infancy" and that "developing the new features they support will be one of our main focuses for the coming year," meaning we'll have to wait a bit longer to use all of these features. (Photo by bigtunaonline / Bigstockphoto)
