Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg announced the launching of WhatsApp’s Communities to allow users to create smaller groups within groups.
After months of waiting the feature is finally rolling out to WhatsApp beta users, signaling that a stable launch may be looming.
As per the new report by WABetaInfo, the communities tab is showing up for users with the updated WhatsApp beta v2.22.193 on Android.
The feature may not appear for all beta users on the latest version right away which you will have to force close the app and restart for the feature to reappear.
For those who do get access to the feature, a new communities tab will be visible on the main WhatsApp screen, which will replace the camera tab on the left. Those who can see the new Communities tab will be able to create a Community with up to 10 groups in it and support for up to 512 participants.
How the WhatsApp Communities work
The Community is a larger umbrella group placed above the smaller sub-groups. Admins will be able to send messages to particular sub-groups or the entire Community via an announcement group which will be automatically created when they create a Community.
Based on individual interests, users who are invited into a Community will decide on which sub-group to join . Communities also allow members of a sub-group to leave without leaving the Community itself.
Among other features, WhatsApp is also working on hiding the number of members in sub-groups from other participants for privacy reasons, but this is yet to be implemented.
For people using the stable version of WhatsApp, unfortunately you will have to wait a little longer before you get a taste of Communities. This is to facilitate for earlier discovery and elimination of any bugs before the feature is released to all WhatsApp users.