WhatsApp announces new features for newsgroups

Created for the future Hub Communities, the new features come to help users manage WhatsApp groups.

New features include Admin Delete, which allows group administrators to delete erroneous or problematic messages, which disappear from the tweets of all subscribers.

Another improvement is support for file sharing, with users contributing to various projects via WhatsApp groups being able to share files up to 2GB without having to “break” them into smaller chunks.

Aiming for better imposition as a conference platform, WhatsApp now allows voice calls with up to 32 participants from the users who subscribe to that group.

Last but not least, WhatsApp now offers the ability to react to other users’ posts using emoji applied directly to that message. Especially useful in WhatsApp groups with many participants, the new feature should reduce the number of messages that are not directly related to the discussion, allowing users an alternative way to express their opinion.

WhatsApp will soon allow users to include multiple discussion groups in so-called communities, for example, by bringing together all the employees of a company or the students of the respective educational institution. These Hubs will have specialized tools for more efficient discussion group management, such as organizing topics, raising funds, and initiating general announcements. Another important aspect is that all community hubs will be private, with the confidentiality of message exchanges being protected using end-to-end encryption technologies. According to WhatsApp, the communities will be the main goal of the company for next year, other improvements will be announced along the way.