WhatsApp, the world’s most popular and widely used instant messaging platform, is constantly evolving. The messaging platform continues to add new features and improve user experiences to offer its users new and intuitive ways to connect and communicate with people. Recently, WhatsApp increased the file sharing limit to 2GB and introduced a new feature called Communities. Similar to these, Whatsapp has announced several new features for the instant messaging platform. In this article, we take a look at the new WhatsApp features expected to roll out in 2022. We also take a look at the various new features in development that have been spotted in the wild by the community. So, without further ado, let’s get started.
11 new WhatsApp features are expected to launch in 2022
- Communities
Currently WhatsApp allows users to create groups to share messages, pictures, videos and more with a group of people. Soon, the instant messaging platform is ready to introduce a community feature that will allow users to create multiple individual groups and merge and manage them under a single community. For example, Whatsapp says, “Communities will make it easier for a school leader to bring together all parents in the school to share must-read updates and create groups around specific classes, extracurricular activities, or volunteer needs.”
The Communities feature will also have new tools for admins, including the ability to send the announcement messages to the entire groups or selected groups. WhatsApp says they are also making several improvements to how the groups feature works, regardless of whether the user is part of a community or not. The company also notes that it is introducing new and improved ways to reduce congestion in larger group chats. Hopefully this will help users to easily analyze those tens of hundreds of messages in group chats. And as always, the community feature is protected by end-to-end encryption technology, keeping the messages, images, videos and any other media you share between you and the intended recipients.
- Larger group size
WhatsApp increases the group limit from the current 256 people to 512 people. Increasing the limit is a relief for users and admins who want to add more people to the group chat discussions. WhatsApp is now one step closer to its competitor Telegram. This allows users to create groups up to 1,00,000 people in size using “supergroups”. - More emoji reactions
WhatsApp is currently introducing an emoji reaction feature that will allow users to react to chat messages with emojis. Currently, the emoji reactions are limited to only six emojis, namely: Thumbs Up, Red Heart, Face with Happy Tears, Silent Face, Crying Face and Clasped Hands emojis. WhatsApp say they will add more emoji reactions over time.
- Ability for admins to delete unwanted messages
One of WhatsApp’s many features in 2022 is the ability for admins to delete specific messages in a group chat. When the Admin Delete feature rolls out to WhatsApp in the coming months, group admins will finally be able to remove problematic messages from all chats at any time. Once the admin deletes the message, it will no longer be available to any member of the group.
- More participants in voice calls
WhatsApp has announced that the company is increasing the group call limit to up to 32 people. Currently only 8 people can be added to a group call. This brings the instant messaging platform closer to other chat apps like Telegram, where there is no limit to the number of people you can add to a group voice chat. It’s worth noting that the video call limit remains the same.
