On June 7th, the American technology company Meta began testing a new feature called Channels on its WhatsApp application, aiming to attract more users.
Meta stated that, visually, messages from the new Channels feature will appear on a new toolbar called Updates. This differs from Meta's recent Instagram update, where notifications are delivered via direct messages.
The target users for this feature that Meta is aiming for are organizations such as non-governmental organizations, medical research organizations, and fact-checking agencies that verify the accuracy of information.
Meta stated that with the new feature, administrators can send text, photos, videos , stickers, and polls. Notably, these are one-way conversations, so users will not be able to reply to these messages.
Although users can join channels via invitation links, WhatsApp is also building a directory to find different channels based on interests, sports teams, and local officials.
Meta is currently launching Channels in select markets such as Colombia and Singapore with early adopters including the Singapore Heart Foundation and the fact-checking organization Colombia Check. The company says several prominent international partners are also joining, including the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and well-known football clubs such as FC Barcelona and Manchester City.
In the coming months, Meta plans to expand the availability of this feature to more countries, with the ultimate goal of giving any user the ability to set up their own Channels.
Channels is WhatsApp's latest effort to facilitate large group chats after Communities, which now has over 2 billion users.
Source link
Comment (0)