Communities on WhatsApp
have been around for a while, helping users or organizations with multiple members manage their conversations more efficiently. The Meta-owned chat app was recently revealed to be working to allow community members to create and schedule events. WhatsApp is now working on another attribute related to communities, which is aimed at protecting the privacy of certain groups.
WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.24.9.27 allows admins to hide specific groups from other community members, as revealed by WABetaInfo. Community group admins should be able to hide a group chat by going to the chat information page and scrolling down to find group permissions. Here, a new option appeared at the top called Group Visibility, accompanied by a toggle to mark it as a hidden group. This is followed by the rest of the admin controls that are currently available, such as who can edit group settings, send messages, etc.
WABetaInfo points out that while Admins will still be able to add or remove groups from the community, they will have no control over a hidden group unless they are also a member of said group. Unfortunately, this feature doesn't seem to be widely rolled out to beta testers yet, even with version 2.24.9.27 installed on their Android smartphone. But given the usefulness of setting up secret chats in large communities, we expect this to eventually reach the stable version of WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is also working on a Quick Share alternative
Outside of WhatsApp Communities, the chat app continues to build on underdeveloped features like People Nearby, a file-sharing tool first spotted earlier this year. Last week, a revised version of the People Nearby app hit WhatsApp beta, giving us a good look at what the final design of this new file transfer solution could be.
Quick Share alternative |
Users will be able to send photos, videos and files to people nearby without sharing personal information such as their phone number. It's not clear what prompted WhatsApp to work on this tool, especially since mobile platforms like Android and IOS already have similar solutions baked into the system.
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