In a few months, Kenyans alongside other WhatsApp users globally will be able to access Communities, a new feature that Meta has been working on.
Meta Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg said the latest feature aims at raising the standards of how organizations communicate with higher levels of privacy and security.
“We’re launching Communities on WhatsApp. It makes groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels and more,” adding that it is safer because end-to-end encryption provides a higher level of security.
The feature will enable groups for instance: neighborhoods, parents at learning institutions and people in workplaces to connect multiple groups, under one umbrella and organize group conversations on WhatsApp.
These features will be available on both Android and iOS devices.
To explore the new feature, one is required to tap on the new communities tab at the top of the chats on Android devices and the bottom on iOS.
One can then create a new Community from scratch or add existing groups.
While in the community, one can switch between available groups to get the information they need, when they need it and admins can send important updates to everyone in the Community.
The firm has also released three more features and noted that, “We think users will be excited about.”
These features include the ability to create in-chat polls, a fun and effective way to make decisions in a group without spamming everyone in the chat.
Also, 32-person video calling and groups with up to 1024 users are amongst the latest features.
The features are applicable in any group just as emoji reactions, larger file sharing and admin delete, but will be particularly helpful for Communities.
Meta said they have been working together with over 50 organizations in 15 countries to build Communities to meet their needs.
The platform added that it is looking forward to getting feedback from users.
“We’re excited that the feedback we’ve heard so far is these new tools are helping groups like these better organize and achieve their goals. There’s a lot more we plan to build and we’ll keep adding features over the coming months. For now, we’re excited to get this into more people’s hands and hear your feedback too.”
Emma Koki, 24, a resident of Nairobi said she is eager to explore the new feature.
“New features in the social media platforms I use excite me. I am in many WhatsApp groups and I can’t wait to experience how Communities work.”