WhatsApp is transforming into a hybrid social network. What innovations

WhatsApp has announced a new Messenger feature called "Communities". It will allow users to combine individual groups and structure them better. Communities will also contain powerful new administration tools, including sending ads to all participants and the ability to select groups that can be added to them, according to the company's blog.

"Taking into account the numerous reviews we received, we decided that we could help users manage active group conversations even better. This is how WhatsApp "communities" appeared. They will allow users to combine individual groups and structure them better. This way, participants will be able to learn about updates in communities and more easily organize groups to discuss smaller issues," the release says.

About new features

The company is also improving the way groups work in WhatsApp, regardless of whether the group belongs to the community. The messenger expects that with these updates, users will discover new ways to exchange information and will be able to navigate more easily in message-rich conversations.

It is expected that new features will appear in the coming weeks, and users will be able to try them out even before the launch of "communities".

In particular, we are talking about the following new features::

Reactions. WhatsApp will have reactions with emoticons, thanks to which users will be able to express their opinion without overloading the conversation with messages;deletion for administrators. Administrators will be able to remove erroneous or problematic messages from all conversations;file sharing. We are expanding the ability to share files: now the limit will be up to 2 GB, so that users can collaborate more effectively on projects;more participants in audio calls. Now up to 32 people can join the call with a single tap. The company will also introduce a new design for cases when talking live is better than writing messages in conversations. About protecting information in Messenger

According to the Company, communities are a function for private communication, so the Messenger will continue to use end-to-end encryption of messages.

"This security technology is now needed more than ever to ensure privacy. Closely related groups (such as religious communities, parents of schoolchildren, even employees of the same company) need the means for personal and confidential communication, when they can be sure that WhatsApp does not track every word," the company stressed.

They added that the priority task for WhatsApp over the next year is to develop communities and develop new features for them.

Recall that after the beginning of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, Meta Corporation announced expanded capabilities of fact checkers for checking information in Ukrainian and Russian. In particular, WhatsApp has added The "View Once" feature for photos or videos (if you enable this feature, media files will disappear after viewing). We also added a "disappearing mode" to automatically delete all new chats after 24 hours. This will protect your information if you lose your phone.

DOU also had a blog about communication during the war: which Messenger is better to choose for convenient and secure communication.