WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta Platforms, is rolling out a feature called “Communities” around the world to help organise different chat groups into larger structures. Other features, like larger group video calls and in-chat polls, are also being added.
With the Communities feature, different chat groups will be put under a bigger umbrella. Administrators will be able to send alerts to a community of thousands, which could be used by schools or workplaces.
A company statement says that the app will now let chat groups have up to 1,024 people in them, which is much more than the previous limit of 256.
Telegram and Discord, two apps that compete with WhatsApp, let thousands of people join group chats.
Other new features include video calling for up to 32 people and in-chat polls, which are common in social media apps like Facebook (NASDAQ:META) and Twitter.