Mark Zuckerberg announces WhatsApp Channels: What is it, how does it work

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday announced WhatsApp Channels, a one-way broadcast tool for administrators to send text, photos, videos, stickers, and polls. WhatsApp Channels will first be available in Colombia and Singapore. It will gradually be available in more countries, including India, over the coming months.

Zuckerberg said WhatsApp Channels is a simple, reliable, and private way to receive important updates from people and organisations, right within WhatsApp. Explaining how it would work, Zuckerberg said Channels would be available in a new tab called Updates on WhatsApp. It is where you will find status and channels you choose to follow – separate from your chats with family, friends, and communities.

WhatsApp is building a searchable directory where users can Channels related to their hobbies, sports teams, updates from local officials, and more. Channel admin can invite people to follow through invite links sent in chats, e-mail, or posted online.

Zuckerberg said personal information such as channel admin’s phone number will not be shown to followers, and following a channel will not show that to the admin or others following the channel either. Channel updates will be available for 30 days with no permanent record. The company said it would add more ways in the future to make updates disappear faster from follower’s devices. Administrators will get the option to block screenshots and forwards from their channel.

The channels will not be end-to-end encrypted by default but there is a possibility of end-to-end encrypted channels to a limited number of followers in the future, the company said.

It will be up to the admins to pick who can subscribe to their channel and whether they want their channel to be discoverable in the directory or not, Meta added.

A payment service could be added to these channels in the future. Some channels can also be promoted on the app by the company.