WhatsApp announced the launch of Channels in over 150 countries, including UAE and Saudi Arabia. Initially, the feature was rolled out in Colombia and Singapore in June, and now it's going global. Meta, in a blog post, announced this news and updated its users about this new feature. WhatsApp Channels let you receive updates that matter to you. It can be used by organisations, sports teams, artists, and thought leaders that people can follow on WhatsApp.
The feature lets admins send text, pictures, videos, stickers and polls under an “Updates” tab, which is separate from normal WhatsApp chats. To protect the privacy of the admins, their phone numbers and followers will not be visible in a channel. Besides this, the channel admins can block screenshots and forwarding of messages from their channel, define who is eligible to follow their channel and decide whether or not they want it to be discoverable in the directory.
Within months, admins will also be able to make changes to their updates for up to 30 days.
WhatsApp users can find channels to follow, view and also check out channels that are new, most active, and popular based on the number of followers. More features will be added soon to expand channels based on the feedback it gets from the users. With time and updates, WhatsApp users will have an option to create a channel.