WhatsApp Is Working on a Newsletter Feature

Bradley Rhodes -

As suggested by a recent WABetaInfo report, popular instant messaging app WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature internally codenamed Newsletter. The private newsletter tool will let users broadcast information to many people at once.

The feature might be called differently in the stable version if or when it is released.

The references to the feature have been spotted in beta version 2.23.5.3 of the app for Android devices. It should be noted that the feature is currently in the early stages of development and is slated to ship in the app's future update. However, it is unknown when it will become official and be available to a wide range of users.

It is expected that the new feature will be a one-to-many tool for broadcasting information, allowing users to easily receive updates from people, groups, officials, brands, and other organizations. Along with the previously launched Communities feature, this will expand the app's capabilities.

WhatsApp Is Rolling Out Its New Communities Feature Globally
To start using this feature, you need to open the new Communities tab, which can be found at the top of your chats on Android or at the bottom on iOS. Here you can both create a new Community and add existing groups to a new Community.
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Users will finally be able to choose who they want to hear from and follow desired broadcasters right within the app. According to WABetaInfo's research, the Newsletter feature will appear as a separate and optional section of the app and will be free of advertising and algorithm-based recommendations.

WhatsApp Lets People Mute Individual Users During Group Calls
Other popular video conferencing platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams offer similar functionality where hosts can mute all or specific participants, but WhatsApp now allows any participant of the group call to mute whoever they want.
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The newsletters will not be protected by end-to-end encryption, but nobody will see which ones you subscribe to. Also, one's name and phone number will be hidden by default.