Meta-owned WhatsApp announced on Thursday that a new feature is being rolled out to Android, iOS and desktop users, giving them the ability to follow accounts outside of their personal contacts.
According to WaBetaInfo, the instant messaging app said the new update will allow users to privately and reliably receive important updates from people and organizations after following them.
The new feature, called Channels, is available to some users in Singapore and Colombia. It will be rolled out to more users in the future.
“With Channels, WhatsApp is creating a trusted and private way to get important updates from the people and organizations you care about,” the app tracking website said.
Mark Zuckerberg also announced new feature channels – which can be accessed through updates. It is different from regular chats as users can follow their favorite channels.
Channel admins are able to share different content like text, images, videos, stickers and polls with their followers. Through this feature, users will be able to share various updates — from hobbies and sports teams to receiving news from local authorities and more.
Meanwhile, the privacy of admins will also be maintained as WhatsApp keeps their phone numbers and profile photos hidden from followers.
Likewise, followers’ phone numbers will not be shown to administrators as well as who they choose to follow. This is why channels are private tools for broadcasting information.
“WhatsApp believes that channel updates should not last forever. For this reason, they plan to store channel history on their servers for 30 days, and are developing new tools so that updates can be removed from devices even faster.” Added supervisor.
Admins will also be able to block screenshots and forwards from their channels, make their channels discoverable or hide them.
However, these channels are not end-to-end encrypted by default but there is a possibility that limited audience end-to-end encrypted channels may be introduced in the future for non-profit organizations or healthcare institutions.
