The latest addition to WhatsApp is Channels – a new broadcasting tool that helps individuals and organizations share updates with their followers. Channels are described by WhatsApp’s parent company Meta as a “reliable and private way to receive important updates from individuals and organisations”.
New features will be accessed through a dedicated Updates tab in WhatsApp and channel admins will be able to share messages, photos, videos, stickers and polls with their followers. Examples given by WhatsApp include sports teams sharing updates on games and players, receiving news from local officials, updates from your favorite creators and hobby page groups.
Users can search for their favorite organizations, sports teams, etc. using the search box on WhatsApp. For security reasons, channel history will be stored for no more than 30 days and admins will hide their phone numbers and profiles from followers photo. Channel admins will also be able to block post retweets and screenshots.
It is worth mentioning that while WhatsApp is exploring bringing a limited audience end-to-end, channels will not be end-to-end encrypted at launch – the future of end-to-end encrypted channels.
Channels are still in development and will be available on WhatsApp beta for Android, iOS and desktop. It will first debut with select organizations in Colombia and Singapore, before rolling out more widely in the coming months.
In related news, WhatsApp also announced a new feature for its app that will finally bring the option to send high-resolution photos on Android and iOS devices.
WhatsApp HD Photos Beta
This feature is currently being tested by a small group of WhatsApp version users and will use a light compression algorithm to preserve as much of its quality as possible. Users can choose between standard and high-definition quality when sending photos in chat, instead of the current options of auto, best quality and data protection.
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