Following the recent launch of local payments on WhatsApp in Singapore, Meta Singapore’s managing director, Damian Kim, in a LinkedIn post, announced the launch of a new feature for users in the Republic - Channels on WhatsApp.
The new feature is a broadcasting tool helping individuals and organisations share updates with their followers.
It will allow admins to send text, photos, videos, stickers, and polls.
According to Kim, this feature will be initially available only in Singapore and Colombia, that too with only selected organisations.
In Singapore, Channels will include access to local activations from Singapore's Gov.sg, Land Transport Authority (LTA) Singapore, Housing and Development Board HDB, the National Environment Agency, The Straits Times, Channel News Asia, and the Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF), he added.
Meta is building Channels into a new tab called Updates - where users can find the status and channels they choose to follow - separate from chats with family, friends, and communities.
Further, to help select channels to follow, the firm is also building a searchable directory where users can find hobbies, sports teams, updates from local officials, and more.
According to Meta, one can get to a channel from invite links sent in chats, e-mail, or posted online.
Protecting personal information
Meta added that the phone number and profile photo of a channel admin won’t be shown to followers.
Likewise, following a channel won’t reveal the phone number to the admin or other followers.
The firm will store channel history on servers for up to 30 days and will add ways to make updates disappear even faster from followers’ devices.
Admins will also have the option to block screenshots and forwards from channels.
“We’ll make it possible for admins to decide who can follow their channel and whether they want their channel to be discoverable in the directory or not,” said Meta.
However, channels are not end-to-end encrypted by default and the firm is exploring it as a future option, Meta added..
