WhatsApp communities to get new features for events, replies to message groups

WhatsApp is introducing several new features for communities that will allow members to participate in new ways. Meta, the instant messaging platform’s parent company, announced Wednesday that it is adding a new events feature and enabling replies in message groups to make communities more interactive. Events will allow group members to create a random event, and other participants can then add whether they are going or not. In particular, WhatsApp is reportedly working on a Recently Online feature that will list users who have logged into the app recently.

Announcing features in a newsroom post, Meta said, “To help bring communities even closer together, we’re adding a new way for people to organize events on WhatsApp and introducing curated replies to message groups so members can respond to important updates from admins.” According to company events can now be created by any group member whose group is part of a community. The option to create an event can be found by tapping on the paperclip icon in the text field, which also opens options for surveys and payments.

These events can be about anything, including a virtual date or a birthday party. Once an event is created, other members can respond to it. They can open the event and confirm whether they will attend or not. Everyone can see who will be attending the event and who won’t.

You can also find the events on the group information page. Members who will be attending will receive a notification as the event approaches to remind them of it. For now, Events are exclusive to groups in Communities, but WhatsApp said it will roll out the feature to all groups in the coming months.

Another feature being introduced is group message replies. Each WhatsApp community has a separate message group that is accessible to all members, even if they are only added to one of the groups, but only administrators can post to it. It is usually used to post important messages that are relevant to all members. WhatsApp now allows all members to reply to these messages.

This feature is designed to allow admins to receive community feedback in one space. These answers are grouped and minimized to avoid clutter, and opening it opens the bottom slide that shows all the answers. Reply notifications are muted for everyone.