News > Social Media WhatsApp Revamps Group Chats and Rebrands Them ‘Communities’ These changes could also come to Facebook and Instagram… By Lawrence Bonk Lawrence Bonk News Reporter Florida State University Lawrence Bonk is a tech news reporter for Lifewire, specializing in gaming, AI, VR, and consumer tech, including iOS, macOS, wearables, and more. lifewire's editorial guidelines Published on April 14, 2022 01:22PM EDT Fact checked by Jerri Ledford Fact checked by Jerri Ledford Western Kentucky University Gulf Coast Community College Jerri L. Ledford has been writing, editing, and fact-checking tech stories since 1994. Her work has appeared in Computerworld, PC Magazine, Information Today, and many others. lifewire's fact checking process Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Social Media Mobile Phones Internet & Security Computers & Tablets Smart Life Home Theater & Entertainment Software & Apps Social Media Streaming Gaming It looks like those used to the standard ebb and flow of their WhatsApp group chats are in for some pretty significant changes. WhatsApp just announced they are revamping these group chats, naming them "Communities,” as reported via an official blog post. This brings some changes for the average user but also some new features. WhatsApp / Meta What does this mean exactly for current group chat users? The company says Communities allows them to combine multiple chats “under one umbrella” to suit their individual tastes. "That way, people can receive updates sent to the entire Community and easily organize smaller discussion groups on what matters to them,” they wrote. Meta is adding features to WhatsApp Communities to combat misinformation and toxic behavior, such as giving moderators more power to delete messages and protecting messages with end-to-end encryption. They are also adding reaction emojis to reduce chat clutter, upping the file-sharing size to 2GB, and increasing voice chat capabilities to 32 people simultaneously. Even more significant? According to Meta head Mark Zuckerberg, these changes are likely to be implemented across the company's entire suite of messaging networks, as announced in a personal Facebook post. This means that Facebook Messenger and Instagram will likely introduce Communities at some point in the near future, though Zuckerberg did not issue a timetable for the changes. As for WhatsApp Communities, the company will start testing in the “coming weeks,” with eventual plans to launch the feature globally. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up! Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit