WhatsApp is starting to experiment with “Communities”, an update that, according to Mark Zuckerberg, represents a “major evolution” for the messaging app. An unreleased version of this new feature was first spotted last year, but the company has yet to confirm the existence of this update.
WhatsApp announced in a blog post that Communities will allow users to gather different group chats under one umbrella. In this way, they will be able to receive messages sent to the whole community and accumulate messages that are important to them in small discussion groups.
The company didn’t share details on how exactly these groups will be created, but a spokesperson has clarified that they will have more options for users to communicate beyond the chat features currently offered by WhatsApp to “interconnected groups”. WhatsApp will begin testing this feature in “select countries” later this year, but will eventually make it available globally.