Instant messaging app WhatsApp is currently testing a new feature, Channels, which, according to recent reports, allows you to send messages to a large number of users.
According to the site “WABetaInfo”, which is interested in the news “WhatsApp”, the application began testing the “channels” function in the beta version of the application on iPhone and Android.
Partial encryption
This feature will allow you to send messages to an unlimited number of subscribers who join the channel while maintaining privacy, which means that channel subscribers will not be able to find out the channel owners’ phone number.
It should be noted that the channels will be public and most likely all users will join them, so the messages in them may not be end-to-end encrypted, as is always the case in the application.
Only channel owners will be able to send messages within channels, while other members will only receive messages and may provide them with some options to interact with messages.
Similar to Telegram channels
WhatsApp will also allow you to search for channels and access them through their unique identifier.
The feature is very similar to the channels feature in rival instant messaging app “Telegram” that has been around since 2015, and it looks like Meta – WhatsApp’s parent company – will outsource the channels feature in terms of name and operation. mechanism as if from Telegram.
Updates from channels can be displayed alongside statuses on the same tab and can be moved to be present in a message box next to other conversations.
Telegram channels differ from groups in that groups allow messaging between members within a group, and there is a ceiling for members within a single group that does not exceed 1024 members per group.
The WhatsApp channel feature is currently in testing and will be released later after the beta phase is completed.
