[imagesource: User illustration / WhatsApp]

WhatsApp has been steadlily rolling out updates over the last few months.

Group chat sizes have doubled to 512 people, you can hop on to a 32-person video call, and there’s an increased 2GB file-sharing limit.

Other updates include emoji reactions as well as “last seen” statuses that allow you to hide from certain people.

The latest changes are all about bringing people together, with the new ‘Communities’ feature a way for separate groups to come “under one umbrella”.

It’s expected to be a little like Slack, apparently.

According to Mashable, the feature allows you to add up to 10 groups under one community:

Communities also gives group admins more power; they can remove messages they deem “errant or problematic” and can send announcement messages to everyone in the group.

Image: WhatsApp / Mashable

Members can also break off into smaller discussion groups within that Community.

Communities will appear in a separate tab on the app, and according to these screenshots from WABetaInfo, the tab will be where the camera icon would ordinarily appear:

Image: WABetaInfo

The messaging platform stipulated that end-to-end encryption will be extended to the Communities feature.

Your school and suburb group chats are about to have an absolute field day.

For now, though, Communities is only available in “limited countries” and only for beta users, according to WhatsApp.

It’s a good thing that WhatsApp is also working on a way to exit group chats silently.

[source:mashable]