The team of the popular messenger WhatsApp, part of Meta (formerly Facebook), is working on a new feature for users – Communities.
WhatsApp messenger Coming with Whatsapp Communities
The innovation in the fresh beta version of WhatsApp for Android and iOS drew attention to the thematic resource WABetaInfo. The source also offers several screenshots as evidence.
Preliminary information is that whatsapp communities will provide administrators with the ability to combine individual group chats into larger communities, as well as invite new users manually or using public invitation links. Community admins will have more control than group chat admins.
The structure is a bit like Discord channels where you can create subgroups. As noted by WABetaInfo, communities received a special badge – unlike group chat, it is not round, but square with rounded corners.
An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.
WhatsApp‘s latest beta, v2.21.21.6, comes with several new strings that point to an upcoming feature called “Community”.
<string name="accept_invite_link_already_in_parent_group">"You're already in this community"</string>
<string name="button_invite_to_parent_group">Invite to community</string>
<string name="cannot_send_to_parent_group_not_member">"ERROR: can't send to this community, not a participant"</string>
<string name="conversations_most_recent_parent_group_invite">WhatsApp community invite</string>
<string name="failed_accept_bad_invite_link_parent_group">"This invite link doesn't match any WhatsApp communities"</string>
<string name="failed_accept_invite_link_banned_parent_group">"You can't join this community because you were removed."</string>
<string name="failed_accept_invite_link_invalid_parent_group">"You can't join this community because this invite link is invalid."</string>
<string name="failed_accept_invite_link_no_parent_group">"You can't join this community because it has ended."</string>
<string name="failed_accept_invite_link_reset_parent_group">"You can't join this community because this invite link was reset."</string>
<string name="failed_accept_invite_parent_group_full">"You can't join this community because it is full."</string>
<string name="failed_announcement_parent_group_send_msg_not_admin">Only admins can message this community</string>
<string name="failed_create_invite_link_no_parent_group">"Can't view this community's invite link because this group has ended."</string>
<string name="failed_create_invite_link_not_admin_parent_group">"Can't view this community's invite link because you're not an admin."</string>
<string name="invite_link_description_parent_group">Anyone with WhatsApp can follow this link to join this community. Only share it with people you trust.</string>
<string name="join_parent_group">Join community</string>
<string name="join_parent_group_by_link">Join community</string>
<string name="join_parent_group_creator_message">Community created by %1$s</string>
<string name="joining_parent_group">Joining community…</string>
<string name="parent_group_created_by_creator">Group creator created community "%1$s"</string>
<string name="parent_group_created_by_name">%1$s created community "%2$s"</string>
<string name="parent_group_created_by_you">You created community "%1$s"</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_changed_by_name">%1$s changed the community description. Tap to view.</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_changed_by_name_in_chats">%1$s changed the community description</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_changed_by_participant">A participant changed the community description. Tap to view.</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_changed_by_participant_in_chats">A participant changed the community description</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_changed_by_you">You changed the community description. Tap to view.</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_changed_by_you_in_chats">You changed the community description</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_deleted_by_name">%1$s deleted the community description</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_deleted_by_participant">A participant deleted the community description</string>
<string name="parent_group_description_deleted_by_you">You deleted the community description</string>
<string name="parent_group_ended">This community has ended</string>
<string name="parent_group_invite">WhatsApp community invite</string>
<string name="parent_group_invite_default_caption">Invitation to join my WhatsApp community</string>
<string name="parent_group_invite_link_preview_description">Community chat invite</string>
<string name="parent_group_link_qr_prompt">This community QR code is private. If it is shared with someone, they can scan it with their WhatsApp camera to join this community.</string>
<string name="parent_group_no_forwarded_many_times_disabled_sys_msg">"%1$s changed this community's settings to allow messages that have been forwarded many times"</string>
<string name="parent_group_no_forwarded_many_times_disabled_sys_msg_you">"You changed this community's settings to allow messages that have been forwarded many times"</string>
<string name="parent_group_no_forwarded_many_times_enabled_sys_msg">"%1$s changed this community's settings to not allow messages that have been forwarded many times"</string>
<string name="parent_group_no_forwarded_many_times_enabled_sys_msg_you">"You changed this community's settings to not allow messages that have been forwarded many times"</string>
<string name="parent_group_participant_joined_by_link_names">"%s joined using this community's invite link"</string>
<string name="parent_group_participant_joined_by_link_you">"You joined using this community's invite link"</string>
<string name="parent_group_qr_share_subtitle">WhatsApp community</string>
<string name="parent_group_restrict_disabled_sys_msg">"%1$s changed this community's settings to allow all participants to edit this group's info"</string>
<string name="parent_group_restrict_disabled_sys_msg_you">"You changed this community's settings to allow all participants to edit this group's info"</string>
<string name="parent_group_restrict_enabled_sys_msg">"%1$s changed this community's settings to allow only admins to edit this group's info"</string>
<string name="parent_group_restrict_enabled_sys_msg_you">"You changed this community's settings to allow only admins to edit this community's info"</string>
<string name="reset_link_confirmation_parent_group">Are you sure you want to reset the invite link for "%1$s"? If you reset the link, no one will be able to use it to join this community.</string>
<string name="share_invite_link_message_parent_group">Follow this link to join my WhatsApp community: %s</string>
<string name="view_parent_group">View community</string>All of these are new string additions to WhatsApp, indicating work on a new Community feature. And from the looks of it, the Community feature will have a fair share of overlap with the existing Groups feature too.
In fact, most of these Community-related strings do have “parent_group” as part of their string id.
At first, we believed that this was nothing but a rename of Groups to Community. But these Community strings are new additions and exist alongside all the existing strings related to Groups features, indicating that the two features could coexist.
Further, one of these strings (reproduced below) goes on to mention Group and Community in the same description, adding some more weight to the theory that the two features would exist simultaneously.
Before the official launch of the stable version of WhatsApp, the function may still have time to change.
