WhatsApp, the instant messaging service founded in 2009 and acquired by Meta Platforms (former Facebook Inc until 2021) in 2014, is one of the most popular messengers in Germany with 58 million users every day.
In addition to instant messaging, voice messages, images, documents and live locations can be sent to individuals or groups, or voice and video calls can be made.
WhatsApp also has solutions for the business sector: WhatsApp Business enables SMEs to communicate with customers. The enterprise solution is suitable for larger companies that offer customer service via the WhatsApp chat, live agents or chatbots (e.g. banks, airlines or e-commerce retailers).
Additional features have been tested in pilot countries for several years: In India, for example, payment via WhatsApp.
Now the popular messenger service is trumping with a new feature, despite ongoing criticism in terms of data protection: The community feature.
According to the mother company, the new function called “Communities” is intended to create a platform for communication and coordination within a community.
“Here the Meta group hits the nerve of the time again. In Corona times, people rediscovered the “we”. They are again increasingly relying on cohesion, community and togetherness. Common values play a major role here and these need to be communicated consistently.” Markus Demirci, Founder and CEO of mPocket.
Individual group chats are supposed to be created with this function within a group, the community. It should be possible to link up to 10 individual groups within a community. For example, a football club can be divided into men’s, women’s, youth and children’s teams. Updates received at community level can be further discussed in the individual subgroups. The community, the football club, plans the summer festival and assigns tasks to the individual teams. These tasks can then be discussed in detail so that the entire club does not receive the message. Like this it can be avoided to be quickly disturbed or that the overview is lost.
Powerful tools for the admins are implemented, according to Meta, including announcement messages which can be sent to everyone and the control over which groups can be included into the community. Incorrect or problematic messages can be removed by the group administrators.
The community feature also includes emoji reactions so the users can quickly share an answer or opinion without flooding the groups with messages.
“Here WhatsApp delivers as well exactly what users want: Fast communication with just one click. A certain emoji often says more than a thousand words or expresses the feeling in such a way that the recipients really get it.” Markus Demirci, Founder and CEO of mPocket.
Even larger projects should be possible for the users of the communities’ platform: The joint use of files is extended to files with up to two gigabytes. One-tap voice calls with up to 32 participants are intended to serve those situations in which a chat would be too time-consuming but face-to-face meetings are not possible.
Meta also added that communities are inherently private and will continue to protect messages with end-to-end encryption. The new feature will roll out in a few countries over the next few months before being rolled out globally.
“During the pandemic, most people had to get creative to communicate and collaborate remotely. With the communities’ feature, WhatsApp offers a solution that will certainly bring some advantages and follows other messenger services so as not to fall behind.” Markus Demirci, Founder and CEO of mPocket.
Would you like to know how you can chat with your team in a targeted and structured way already today? Completely data protection compliant, when it comes to confidential contract data of your customers?
Check out our solution at www.mpocket.io or contact us directly at hallo@mpocket.io for more info.
We would be happy to advise you how you can structure the tasks for your team better so nothing is forgotten, how to improve your communication and thus your team spirit and turn your customers into regular customers.
*For reasons of better legibility only the simultaneous use of male and female language forms is not used. All personal names apply to both genders.
Jasmin Janson
Marketing & Communication Manager mPocket
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