WhatsApp’s new Communities feature sounds like Slack for noobs
The feature will roll out slowly
How do all of these features stack up against other apps?
WhatsApp has been slightly late when it comes rolling out features that some of the other popular messaging apps already have. Case in point:Ephemeral messagesandpolls.
Telegram already has some of the above-mentioned features. For instance, Telegram has1,000-people group calls, emoji reactions, and the ability to send 1.5GB files.
But WhatsApp’s marquee new feature, Communities, is akin to creating Discord or Slack servers.
I’ve seen a ton of my friends complain about getting their work and private chats mixed up as their organization used multiple WhatsApp groups to communicate amongst them. The Communities feature will let them access all these groups in one place under a dedicated tab.
While it’s easy to say “Why not use Slack?” for a lot of people learning a new tool is a hassle, and they’re comfortable with WhatsApp as a platform. Sure, they might be missing on a lot of organizational features of a
WhatsApp told me that you’ll be able to mute specific communities, but there’s no information if the mute time can be scheduled like Slack.
Notably, individual groups — even if they’re part of a community — will operate just like before. So you will see them in your main chat tab. I wish WhatsApp would introduce a function to toggle this.
As a next step, it would make sense for WhatsApp to introduce a feature to separate personal and community chats, including groups. So, what are you waiting for, Zuck?
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
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