With WhatsApp Communities Launching Globally, Groups Can Now Have Up To 1,024 Users

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Thursday announced it is launching its discussion group called WhatsApp Communities globally, after months of testing.

Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement about WhatsApp Communities on Facebook.

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Thursday announced it is launching its discussion group called WhatsApp Communities globally, after months of testing. WhatsApp Communities went into testing in April this year and it is similar to Slack and works by bringing together separate groups under one umbrella. WhatsApp Communities brings better admin controls and support for sub-groups. The introduction of this tool marks WhatsApp's entry into the territory of workplace tools which is dominated by Slack.

With WhatsApp Communities, the company has also added three new features to the world's most popular messaging platform: The ability to create in-chat polls, 32-person video calling and creating groups with up to 1,024 users.

Company CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement about WhatsApp Communities on Facebook.

"Today we're launching Communities on WhatsApp. It makes groups better by enabling sub-groups, multiple threads, announcement channels, and more. We're also rolling out polls and 32-person video calling too. All secured by end-to-end encryption so your messages stay private," Zuckerberg posted on his Facebook wall.

According to WhatsApp, this is a "major update" to how people will be able to connect on the messaging platform. WhatsApp Communities will be available for all users globally in the next few months, the Meta-owned company noted. 

"Just like emoji reactions, larger file sharing, and admin delete, these features can be used in any group but will be particularly helpful for Communities," WhatsApp wrote in a blog post.

"We’ve been working with over 50 organisations in 15 countries to build Communities to meet their needs. 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," the company added in the blog post.

Meta-owned WhatsApp is planning to build more features to the tool in the coming months.