Introducing WhatsApp Channels: Your Private Gateway to Follow What's Important

Hey everyone! We've got something pretty exciting to share with you today. Meet "Channels" on WhatsApp – a nifty new way to keep up with all the updates that matter to you. Think of it like a personal bulletin board filled with your favorite sports teams, hobbies, local news, and more. Best of all, it’s tucked away in a new tab called "Updates," so your chats with friends and family remain just that – personal and uninterrupted.

So what's a Channel, you ask? It's like a one-way street where admins (the people running the channels) get to send you all sorts of content like text, photos, videos, stickers, and even polls. And don't worry, we've made it super easy for you to find and follow what interests you most. Whether it’s a cooking channel from a link shared in your family chat, or browsing through the directory to find the latest football updates, we’ve got you covered.

But here's the cherry on top: we're really putting the 'private' in this private broadcast service. So, if you’re an admin, no one sees your phone number or profile picture. And if you're following a channel? Your info stays secret too. We believe in giving you the space to choose and keep your choices to yourself.

We also don't think that updates should linger around forever, so we'll keep them on our servers for only 30 days. We're even working on ways to make them disappear from your devices even faster. And hey, admins, you’ll have options to keep your content more secure, like blocking screenshots and forwarding.

We're giving admins the control to decide how public they want their channel to be. We know that for some cases like non-profits or health organizations, end-to-end encryption might be a good fit, so we're exploring that as well.

Starting this journey with some incredible global voices and organizations in Colombia and Singapore, we're excited to learn, adapt, and then bring Channels to everyone around the world.

And we’re not stopping there. We see Channels as a place where admins can even build a business, promote channels, and use our expanding payment services. Pretty cool, right?

But don't worry, we haven't forgotten what WhatsApp is all about. Your private messaging with friends, family, and communities will always be our number one focus. You asked us for Channels, and now it's here! It's the right time to add this simple, reliable, and private tool to our family, and we hope you have as much fun using it as we did creating it. Enjoy! 

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