WhatsApp just launched the first stage of its new Communities rollout, with Reactions now available in group chats. Users are now also able to send files within WhatsApp up to 2GB in size, which is significantly higher than its previous 100MB limit.
WhatsApp announced its new Communities initiative last month, which, on top of these elements, also includes new admin tools, sub-groups, 32-person audio chats, and more.
Messaging XL
Apparently, whatever was mentioned above isn’t even everything. To add to these already-announced updates, WhatsApp is now gradually rolling out the ability to add up to 512 people to a group chat. 512 people, now that’s a significant expansion – users can currently add up to only 256 people to a WhatsApp group chat, meaning that this update effectively doubles group chat capacity. The expansion does open up new opportunities, facilitating a range of new usage and communication options.
Though it could also open WhatsApp up to more criminal groups and activity, or those fond of spreading misinformation and other forms of harmful content via its encrypted channels. Back in 2020, during the peak of the pandemic, WhatsApp implemented new restrictions on message forwarding to combat the rise of misinformation campaigns flowing through chat threads. That resulted in a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages, and with over 2 billion users around the globe, that’s a potentially significant blow against the activity of ill-intentioned groups.
On this front, doubling the size of WhatsApp groups might be a double-edged step. Concerns aside, the expansion could open up new opportunities for marketers to create brand-affiliated groups within the app, allowing them to provide exclusive offers and sneak peeks to their most loyal and engaged customers. To be clear, this is already doable with the current 256 limit, but opening this up to more people and effectively doubling this amount makes it a way more impactful and valuable proposition.
On its own, WhatsApp was already a surprise, suddenly becoming the world’s largest messaging platform just shortly after it initially launched. When it was acquired by Meta, that was when things started to get a bit worrisome, given Meta’s plans to have E2E encryption across all of its messaging platforms, granting additional security, but also increasing the risk for its messaging channels to fall victim to misuse. The same holds true in this case, where twice as many people could also mean twice the headache in mitigating potentially harmful scenarios.
The Wrap
This is what WhatsApp should watch out for and prevent, from the get-go if possible. Though more secure than most other mega-messaging platforms, WhatsApp still needs to protect itself and its many users where and when it can, which isn’t the easiest thing to do but is highly commendable.
The capability to create supermassive WhatsApp groups isn’t available to all users just yet, but if you were waiting for such a chance to arrive, then it’s coming soon.
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