WhatsApp’s new Channels feature brings social media to your messaging app

WhatsApp’s newest feature brings a very different kind of messaging to the world’s most popular chat app. It’s called a channel, and it’s specifically designed for one-to-many broadcasts, rather than conversations. The Meta-owned company calls it “a personal way to follow what matters” and names local and sports updates among the ways you can use it.

But what exactly is a channel? It’s a Twitter feed, minus all the metrics and reply friends. WhatsApp has clearly seen governments, transit agencies, brands and others all looking for a new (and non-Twitter) place to share their most important updates, and sees Channels as a drop-in replacement. Is.

Channels are also somewhat of a creator tool, a place for viewers to “send text, photos, videos, stickers and polls,” according to WhatsApp’s launch blog post. The company plans to build payments and other monetization services into the channels as well. You’ll be able to find channels by searching for them in WhatsApp or browsing in the newly created directory, and see their most recent updates in the Status section of the app.

WhatsApp says privacy is an important part of the experience, which is why channel admins’ information isn’t shared and the app only stores 30 days of channel history. Admins can also block screenshots and forwards, ensuring that what’s in the channel stays in the channel. Channels are not end-to-end encrypted, however; They’re treated more like your messages with businesses, which aren’t completely private either. But WhatsApp says it is thinking of ways to encrypt some channels over time.

This is a really obvious feature for WhatsApp to add. Telegram has a similar feature, also called channels, and it’s also been around for one-to-many broadcasts for years. Instagram also has a similar feature called Broadcast Channels. And it really makes sense to bring this kind of information into WhatsApp; Getting air-quality updates and train status in messaging apps feels more natural than fumbling with everything else on Twitter

But if you zoom out a bit, WhatsApp is quickly turning into something more than just a messaging app. Just in the past few months, the company has made it possible to use one account on multiple phones; working on a personal newsletter tool and a new username system; added polls and shopping and a bunch of other Facebook-y things on the platform; revamped its status system; improved your group chats; and many more. Channels are the latest way WhatsApp is trying to bring social media into messaging.

Like most WhatsApp features, Channels are starting small. The company plans to launch the channel with “leading global organizations and select organizations in Colombia and Singapore,” and the feature will be available only in those two countries at first. It will be coming to more countries, and channel creation will be available to more users “in the coming months”.

WhatsApp is clearly still a messaging app – billions of people use it to chat with their friends and loved ones. But as it seeks to grow, make more money, and become the ubiquitous super app, it’s trying to find ways to be much more than that.