Evidence is mounting that WhatsApp could also be engaged on a Communities function. XDA Developers first spotted the likelihood in October, however now WABetaInfo has come forward with related findings.

According to WABetaInfo, the Communities function seems to provide group admins extra energy over teams. This consists of the flexibility to create teams inside teams, which can be much like how channels are organized beneath an umbrella Discord group.

Photo by WABetaInfo

Admins might be able to invite new customers through a Community Invite Link after which begin messaging different members. It’s exhausting to inform how precisely these chats would possibly look proper now, however WABetaInfo notes that they seem like end-to-end encrypted.

It additionally seems like a delicate design change will assist distinguish Communities from common group chats. As WABetaInfo factors out, group icons shall be squares with rounded corners, a format that WhatsApp mistakenly enabled (after which rapidly disabled) in October. There’s no phrase on when Communities shall be formally rolled out.

By engaged on a Communities function, WhatsApp could also be attempting to shut the widening hole between it and different messaging apps like Telegram and Signal. Earlier this yr, WhatsApp’s new privateness coverage brought about confusion amongst customers about what it could share with guardian firm Facebook, sparking a mass exodus to these different apps. When WhatsApp went down together with Facebook’s total community of apps final month, Telegram gained a whopping 70 million customers.