WhatsApp is a popular messaging app used by billions of people worldwide. Meta keeps updating the app with new features to enhance the user experience. The company is now reportedly working on the ability to create channels on WhatsApp.
Online platform WaBetaInfo spotted the Channels feature in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.8.6 update available on the Play Store. The feature will be a tool “for broadcasting information, allowing users to easily receive useful updates from other people they want to get updates from.”
The report says that channels on WhatsApp will be available as a separate and optional section within the Status tab. The section will be called ‘Updates’. In future, the Status tab will have a revamped interface for status updates.
On the privacy front, a WhatsApp channel will not reveal the user’s phone number and other information. Such details will remain hidden. But, messages received within a channel won’t be end-to-end encrypted. In case you are unaware, private messages shared on WhatsApp – both individual and group chats offer end-to-end encryption. This means that no one can read these messages, except the sender and receiver.
“Since this is an optional extension of private messaging and it does not pivot to a public social network, people are always in control over which channels they want to subscribe to, and no one else will be able to see whom they follow, regardless of whether they have added them as contacts or not,” the WaBetaInfo says.
Additionally, WhatsApp channels will support handles so users will be able to search for a specific WhatsApp channel by simply entering its username within WhatsApp. This will eliminate the need to navigate to external websites.
As mentioned above, channels are under development and will be released in a future update of WhatsApp.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
