WhatsApp introduces one-way broadcast communication feature for admins

In May, WhatsApp launched a string of new features for admins allowing them to better control their groups and improve the overall experience. The new features included, group descriptions, a catch up feature and protection for people who are being added repeatedly to groups they've left. The instant messaging service has now introduced another group setting for admins that will enable only them to send messages to a group.  

The features resembles Telegram’s Channels feature which people use for setting up a broadcast feed. The feature also allows people to sign up to get alerts from the admins of the channels that are generally of news portals, companies, public interest groups, etc. “One way people use groups is to receive important announcements and information, including parents and teachers at schools, community centers, and non-profit organizations. We’ve introduced this new setting so admins can have better tools for these use cases,” WhatsApp wrote in a short blog post.

WhatsApp’s new feature allows the admins to change a setting wherein only they will be able to send messages to the group. WhatsApp users still have to provide a number for adding themselves into a group. On the contrary, Telegram has usernames that keeps the identity of the member hidden from others..

To enable this setting in WhatsApp, group admins need to open ‘Group Info,’ tap Group Settings, select Send Messages and then choose an option ‘Only Admins’, which by default is set as ‘All Participants’. This feature has been rolled out to all Android and iOS users globally. WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion active users, more than 200 million of which are in India. On the other hand, Telegram recently passed 200 million active users worldwide. WhatsApp is expected to launch group voice and video calls in the coming updates as well as a feature that will let users to manually enable or disable media visibility setting for specific chat(s) and group(s).

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Sourabh Kulesh

A journalist at heart; has knowledge of a wide gamut of topics related to enterprise and consumer tech. View Full Profile