The Meta-owned instant messaging and calling platform 'WhatsApp' may soon release a new feature called 'Channels.' This one-to-many tool feature will be available on iPhone and will allow users to broadcast message for several users.
The WhatsApp channels feature is currently under development on the android app and may be available to iOS users in the future updates.
The WhatsApp channels feature is typically for broadcasting information. The messages received on channels will not be encrypted however, that will not affect the the end-to-end encryption of the private messages. Also, the 'Status' tab may be renamed to 'Updates' because the 'Channels' feature will be included in this section of the application.
What Is 'WhatsApp Channels' Feature? Details Here
According to WaBetaInfo, "A WhatsApp Channel is a private tool where phone numbers and user information joining a channel are always kept hidden. However, messages received within a channel are not end-to-end encrypted since the concept of one-to-many wouldn’t make much sense for channels. Channels won’t affect the end-to-end encryption of private messaging, which continues to be end-to-end encrypted."
Since this is an optional extension of private messaging and doesn’t pivot to a public social network, people always have control over which channels they want to subscribe to, and no one else can see whom they follow, regardless of whether they’ve added them as contacts or not. In addition, people won’t get auto-subscribed to channels as there are no algorithmic recommendations or social graphs pushing content to users that they didn’t choose to see, WaBetaInfo says.
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