WhatsApp groups and WhatsApp communities enable you to stay in touch with several people at a time, but many users haven't been able to understand the difference between the two.

What features set WhatsApp groups and communities apart from one another? This guide to help you understand the differences between a WhatsApp community and a WhatsApp group.

1. Structure and Number of Members

In November 2022, WhatsApp changed the number of members that can be in a WhatsApp group to 1024 people. This figure was initially 254, raised to 512, and ultimately 1024. WhatsApp groups are a way to bring different people together and interact, share content, and collaborate. Everyone has a fair say in a group, depending on the admins' permission.

But a WhatsApp community is a directory feature—a way to organize groups under one umbrella, allowing you to reach more audiences effectively. Thus, a WhatsApp community is a collection of individual groups.

In addition to the default WhatsApp community announcement group, which can accommodate up to 2000 people at the time of writing, a WhatsApp community can include up to 50 groups. This can be up to 100 groups in some updated WhatsApp versions—as seen in the above screenshot.

WhatsApp says it's working to bring the number of people in a community announcement group to 5000, though. You can start adding members and groups right after creating a WhatsApp community.

2. Admin Ranking

WhatsApp groups allow you to make as many admins as you want. But WhatsApp communities limit it to 20 admins at a time. By default, WhatsApp community admins have higher control than subgroup admins. Community admins control how members add groups to the community and can restrict members from adding groups.

Meanwhile, group admins only have control of their groups and can admit other community members into a group.

However, if allowed and someone adds a group to the community, the community admin or creator doesn't become a member of this group automatically. As a community admin, you still need to request to join a group you didn't add or that you don't belong to.

Conversely, as a community admin, you can kick out a group from the community regardless of whether or not you belong in that group. When you do, the members of that group remain in the community and can view messages posted in the community announcement group. However, when deleting a group from the community, you also get the option to remove all the members of that group.

3. Content Sharing

WhatsApp's communities and groups are different in terms of content sharing. WhatsApp groups allow members to hold discussions, react to messages, and communicate with each other unless restricted by the group admin.

This isn't widely applicable to a WhatsApp community, as the default announcement group connecting all groups doesn't feature members' content sharing. So members cannot react to the announcements sent by the community admin. They can only reply to specific messages privately.

In the above screenshot, for example, when admins of the Neighborhood community send an announcement, it will appear for all linked group members. You cannot react to this announcement, but you can reply to it privately via a direct message.

Only the admins can share content such as location, media, contact number, and documents in the announcement group. Users only get notified regarding any alerts or changes within the community.

4. Privacy

With little tweaks, you can change the privacy settings of a WhatsApp group; however, there are some settings you can't change.

For example, when you add people to a WhatsApp group, their contact information is visible to other group members regardless of whether or not they are in their contact list. It allows users to save contacts and connect with anyone in the group. It is a bit concerning that people you do not know can access your phone number just by being a part of the same group.

A WhatsApp community is slightly different in that regard. Members of the community announcement group can only see the total number of participants in a community, not their contact information.

For instance, as seen above, the Neighborhood announcement group only shows the group admins but restricts permission to view the list of members. It's not the case for the Buying and selling subgroup, which displays all group members, including their phone numbers.

When someone joins a group in a community, they automatically become a community member and can only see the messages in the community announcement group and the group they belong. They can't cross-view another group's information or what's happening in other groups until they join that group.

5. Calling Features

Like regular WhatsApp groups, community subgroups allow you to hold voice and video calls with up to eight members and up to 32 members in some regions. No matter how large or small a community announcement group is though, it doesn't feature voice or video calls.

For example, the Clothing subgroup in the above screenshot is under the Neighborhood community. But it features voice and video call icons. The Neighborhood community announcement group doesn't feature either icon. So there's no way to place calls in the Neighborhood announcement group—even if you're a community admin.

Expand Your Connections With WhatsApp Groups and Communities

Although both WhatsApp groups and WhatsApp communities aim to bring people together, there are a few notable differences between them. WhatsApp groups are more inclined towards mutual discussion and participation, and you can pack different groups into a community.

Since WhatsApp communities have extended reach, you can leverage it to promote your business or brand. You can also use it to pass important information beyond the scope of the WhatsApp group audience.