Just over six months since unveiling the feature, Meta has announced the launch of WhatsApp Communities—which will act as a central umbrella for WhatsApp group chats.

WhatsApp Communities Rollout Begins

WhatsApp Communities home page example
Image Credit: WhatsApp

With the official launch of Communities, the global rollout has begun. However, Meta notes that it will take some time to roll out for everyone, with the feature expected to be available to every user over the next few months.

WhatsApp Communities help you organize other group chats under a single directory and have been positioned as the next major update for the messaging app. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted an announcement to his Facebook page on 3 November 2022, as the rollout began.

Communities will be organized under a new tab on WhatsApp. The rollout also comes with other updates to groups, such as in-chat polls, 32-person video calls, and groups with up to 1024 members.

Admins will be able to send announcements to all groups within a specific Community, with members taking part in the smaller groups that are relevant to them. In an announcement on the WhatsApp blog, the company noted that more features would be added to Communities over the coming months.

To get started, just open the WhatsApp Communities tab when it appears on your app. You can create a new Community with new groups, or if you're a group admin, link existing groups to a Community.

WhatsApp Will Help Build Messaging Communities

The launch of Communities will change the way that users manage groups on WhatsApp. Hopefully the feature proves to be useful, rather than just another tab to keep track of.