What are WhatsApp “channels”?

WaBetaInfo, a website that keeps track of apps, said that Meta, which owns WhatsApp, has been working on newsletters for a future update of the app. These newsletters are now called channels.

The WhatsApp tracker says that the new update is still being worked on and is not yet ready for beta users to use.

The texting app had been working on newsletters, which are a tool for sending information from one person to many people. Users will be able to get useful updates from the people they want to get updates from through newsletters.

The Status tab, which is now called “updates,” will have separate, optional sections for these sites. In the tab, users will also find a new way to change their status.

— WaBetaInfo
“WhatsApp Channels are marked as private tools because phone numbers and other details about the people who join them are always hidden. But texts sent within a channel won’t be encrypted from end to end. “The idea of one-to-many channels doesn’t make much sense when a lot of people can subscribe to the same channel,” said WaBetaInfo.

The channels won’t be able to read the end-to-end encrypted secret messages because the channels themselves are end-to-end encrypted.

Users will also be able to choose which sites they want to follow, and even if someone is added to their contacts, that person won’t be able to see who they follow.

Also, people won’t be automatically subscribed to the channels because there are no algorithmic recommendations or social graphs that would show users material they didn’t choose to see.

Users won’t have to go to other websites to look for a specific WhatsApp channel because they can just type in their username. This update is meant to make channels easier for users to find, so it will give them the information they want.