The WhatsApp messaging application announced Thursday that it will have a new “channel” service that will allow users to communicate publicly with a large number of subscribers.
“We are pleased to introduce WhatsApp Channels, an easy, reliable and private way to receive important news from people and organizations on our platform,” the Meta (Facebook, Instagram) subsidiary announced in a press release.
This new feature will first be tested in Singapore and Colombia before rolling out to other countries.
Users will be able to find channels of interest in a tab called “news”, external to conversations with contacts and groups.
Channel managers, for their part, are not allowed to add subscribers, communicating mainly by sending messages, photos, videos and surveys.
According to Meta, the World Health Organization and the soccer clubs FC Barcelona and Manchester United will be among the partner organizations.
This new service should allow the Californian group to relaunch the messaging system in certain regions of the world (especially in Africa and Latin America).
The social media giant endured a rough year in 2022, which included the first drop in ad revenue since it went public in 2012.
Channels will allow brands a new way to communicate with consumers.
On the security and privacy side, subscribers will not be able to see the phone numbers of other people in the audience and their channel choices will be private. Published content will disappear after 30 days.
“WhatsApp Channels will aim to become the most secure public messaging feature available and continue to provide the level of privacy WhatsApp users have come to expect,” the company said.
However, “as the channels aim to reach a large audience,” they will not be encrypted by default like private conversations, he added.
Source: TSF
