WhatsApp is reportedly working on a feature called Communities that, according to information gleaned from the app’s latest beta updates, allows users to bring multiple group chats together.
WABetaInfo reports that a Community is “like a group chat at the moment, so nothing like a social network: it’s still a private place between people protected by end-to-end encryption.” It has several differentiating characteristics from normal group chats, however, such as the use of rounded rectangles for the Community’s icon rather than the standard circular image borders.
The report indicates that each Community will be operated by admin users who can invite other WhatsApp users directly or via publicly sharable links. WABetaInfo says a Community will also “offer some tools to admins to better manage all groups included in the community but, seen [sic] that this feature is under development, these advanced tools are still unknown at the present.”
This isn’t the first indication that WhatsApp is working on something called Communities. XDA-Developers found references to the feature in October when it examined lines of text in a beta version of the service’s Android app. WABetaInfo’s report offers more information about what this feature could be like, however, which suggests that it’s getting closer to an official release.
But it’s worth remembering that WhatsApp might not introduce Communities at all; the company might be testing a feature that never makes its way to consumers. WhatsApp parent company Meta (formerly known as Facebook) didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
