WhatsApp today announced the launch of WhatsApp Channels in over 150 countries, providing a private way to receive the updates that matter to you. The company is excited to announce the addition of thousands of organizations, sports teams, artists, and thought leaders, who people can follow directly through WhatsApp.

If you're new to Channels, know that our goal is to create the most private group messaging service available. Please note that Channels are separate from your chats, and the channels you choose to follow are not visible to other followers. We also protect the personal information of both admins and followers.

We appreciated all the positive feedback we received from our initial rollout in ten countries. As we expand Channels globally, we are introducing the following updates:

Improved Guide - You can now find channels to follow automatically filtered by country. You can also see new, most active, and trending channels based on follower count.

Interactions - You can interact with emojis to provide feedback and see the total number of interactions. Your interaction will not be visible to your followers.

Edit - Coming soon, admins will be able to make changes to their updates for up to 30 days, when we automatically delete them from our servers.

Redirects - When you redirect any updates to chats or groups, you'll include a link to get back to the channel so people can discover more.

This is just the beginning, and WhatsApp will continue its efforts to add more features and expand the range of channels based on user feedback. Over the coming months, it will also allow anyone to create a channel.

If you're looking to learn more about our latest product updates directly from us, please note that we've also now launched an official WhatsApp channel to keep you updated on our latest developments.

September 13, 2023