WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps worldwide, with over 2 billion active users. In recent years, WhatsApp has expanded beyond just messaging to include features like WhatsApp Business accounts, which allow businesses to communicate with customers, and WhatsApp Communities, which enable larger groupings and announcements. This has led many to wonder whether Communities are available for WhatsApp Business accounts.
What are WhatsApp Communities?
WhatsApp Communities are a new feature that was first announced in April 2022 and rolled out later that year. Communities allow organizations, businesses, schools, and other groups to bring related groups together under one umbrella with up to 10,000 members per Community.
Here are some key things to know about WhatsApp Communities:
- Admins can shareannouncements with the entire Community through broadcast messages. Community members can control which broadcasts they want to receive.
- Communities contain sub-groups organized by topic, allowing for more targeted communication.
- Admins can create polls and coordinate events within the Community.
- Communities are end-to-end encrypted for security.
Overall, WhatsApp designed Communities to improve communication between organizations and their users at scale while maintaining privacy.
What is WhatsApp Business?
WhatsApp Business is a separate app from the standard WhatsApp client designed specifically for business use cases. Key features of WhatsApp Business accounts include:
- Business profile with business info, description, email, address, etc.
- smart messaging tools like quick replies, away messages, and greetings
- Statistics and metrics about messages and customers
- Green verified business badge to confirm authenticity
WhatsApp Business is intended to facilitate convenient communication between businesses and their customers. Over 50 million businesses worldwide use WhatsApp Business.
Are WhatsApp Communities available for Business accounts?
At the time of this writing, WhatsApp has not yet launched support for Communities on WhatsApp Business accounts. Communities are currently only available for standard personal WhatsApp accounts.
WhatsApp has not provided a timeline for when Communities may come to WhatsApp Business. However, given how useful the feature could be for larger organizations to communicate with customers, many expect WhatsApp will expand Communities to Business accounts eventually.
Potential benefits of Communities for businesses
Here are some of the key potential benefits if WhatsApp brings Communities to Business accounts in the future:
- Improved communication with customers at scale – broadcast messages to entire communities
- Segmented sub-groups for more targeted communication
- Polls, events, and announcements to engage customers
- Increased customer loyalty through a sense of community
For large businesses, Communities could provide a better experience than trying to manage many separate WhatsApp groups. Overall, the ability to create Community structures while maintaining the convenience of WhatsApp could be very compelling.
Limitations to consider
However, there are some limitations to keep in mind if WhatsApp ever launches Communities for Business:
- 10,000 member limit per Community could be restrictive for larger brands
- No native community management tools (would need to rely on third-party tools)
- Data and metrics may be more limited compared to native business tools like CRM software
Businesses would need to weigh the benefits against these limitations to determine if WhatsApp Communities fit into their communication strategy and workflows.
Alternatives for businesses
Until WhatsApp formally announces and launches Communities for WhatsApp Business, here are some alternative options businesses can consider:
Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups allow businesses to create communities of followers and customers. Key features include:
- No member limit
- Admin tools for managing and moderating
- Analytics on growth and engagement
- Integrates with Facebook Pages and Instagram business profiles
The downside is users would need a Facebook account to participate.
Slack Connect for customers
Slack Connect provides an alternative for communicating with customers at scale by allowing them to join your Slack workspace as external members. Features include:
- Robust community management tools
- Customizable announcements and notifications
- Integrations with business software
- Higher member limit than WhatsApp Communities
However, customers would need to download the Slack app rather than using a ubiquitous platform like WhatsApp.
Native community platforms
There are also dedicated community platforms like Tribe, Circle, and Discord that businesses could leverage to create branded online communities. These provide robust tools tailored for community management and engagement.
Conclusion
In summary, while WhatsApp Communities are not currently available on WhatsApp Business, the feature could provide compelling benefits for larger businesses to communicate with customers when launched in the future. However, native community platforms or tools like Facebook Groups and Slack Connect can provide alternatives in the meantime. Businesses should monitor developments from WhatsApp to see if Communities become available for WhatsApp Business accounts down the road.