Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp officially announced the launch of WhatsApp Channels in over 150 countries, including India, on Wednesday (September 13).
WhatsApp Channels is a private way to receive updates that matter to the users on the WhatsApp platform, the tech major said in a blog post.
“Channels are separate from your chats, and who the users choose to follow is not visible to other followers,” the company said.
“We’re welcoming thousands of organisations, sports teams, artists, and thought leaders that people can follow, right within WhatsApp,” it added.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced the launch on his WhatsApp Channel saying, “Excited to introduce you all to WhatsApp Channels, a new private way for you to get updates from people and organizations you follow. I’m starting this channel to share Meta news and updates. Looking forward to connecting with you all around the world.”
On expanding Channels globally, WhatsApp has introduced several updates for Channels, including enhanced directory, reactions, editing, and forwarding.
Users can find channels to follow, which are automatically filtered based on their countries. They can also view channels that are new, most active, and popular based on the number of followers.
Users can also react using emojis to give feedback and see a count of total reactions. However, other followers will not be able to view how other followers have reacted.
WhatsApp Channels will allow forwarding an update to other chats and groups in which there will be a link back to the channel.
“This is just the beginning, and we’ll continue to add more features and expand Channels based on feedback we get from users. Over the coming months, we’ll also make it possible for anyone to create a channel,” the company said.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp has also stated that it protects the personal information of both admins and followers.
Amid regulations around privacy becoming more stringent, WhatsApp has also taken a few measures to ensure better data protection.
Recently, increasing instances of fraud cases were reported on WhatsApp. At the core of these were international mobile numbers. Following this, the company agreed to proactively deregister several suspicious phone numbers.
Recently, the Indian government had to ban over 66,000 WhatsApp accounts while cracking down on spam job calls.
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