We haven’t heard of them since Facebook officially developed them, and they’re already among us: WhatsApp Communities Active in some countries such as Argentina. We were able to test them: they aim to be a great tool for those who need to manage large groups of users; while maintaining order among all possible conversations.

A messaging group resolves a specific event, such as a birthday. It also acts as a bridge of communication between a group of lifelong friends or, as parents well know, allowing children to share information about what they do at school (in theory, these groups always get out of hand). Now, what if a school decides to create its own WhatsApp group? manage all aspects related to management? First lessons, ESO, playground, parties, exams… all this can be organized within a Community.

WhatsApp communities: group groups

Community is a group related to a specific topic (school, company, forum…) and in turn, accommodates different groups covering more specific environments (lectures, departments, hobbies…). WhatsApp wants the messaging app to not only communicate with people, but also have space for each user group to divide their home into rooms they want.

Communities are like forums that allow all participants in the WhatsApp app to organize themselves under different criteria. These communities have global managers responsible for maintaining order at both the community and group level. And all the organized groups under the community the ability to get to know one’s own space and the rest of the community in question. Always without showing private data like phone number.

Whenever you create a community, the administrator decides which groups will be integrated into it, you also have the option to: open new groups openly for that community. Additionally, WhatsApp includes a broadcast tool for administrators to distribute important communications that all groups need to know.

WhatsApp Communities on iPhone

Everything that is said in the governing community, those who participate in it, and whether groups will be participatory (participants can comment) or just informative (only admin can post). Communities have their own icons in the iPhone’s submenu and their own tabs in the Android case.

Already enabled for some users

Communities on Android

Communities have started to be enabled on WhatsApp for users in some countries such as Argentina. They still do not appear in Spain, but we were able to force create Communities on Android using WhatsApp code and root access. These Communities still don’t work that way as they become regular groups once created: WhatsApp still needs to fully deploy the functionality.

Communities on Android

WhatsApp Communities is expected to land on all apps in the coming days or weeks. In principle without the need to download a specific version: activation of new group groups can be done from WhatsApp servers.