So far, the Meta Group application has deviated the least from its main mission: being a messaging application. Since last week, WhatsApp has been introducing a new feature that brings a big change. In 150 countries, including France, the “Channels” (or “Channels” in English) allow you to follow the news of personalities, brands and media.
After an experiment in a limited number of countries, WhatsApp will make this feature available to everyone, similar to the Telegram channels, or even the channels on Instagram (also owned by Meta) launched in the spring. The concept is the same: content creators can post messages, photos, and videos in a one-way flow that subscribers can only respond to with emojis.
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On the other hand, one feature distinguishes WhatsApp channels from their Instagram equivalents: in addition to being presented in the form of messages, the new “Updates” tab of the application is presented in the form of a feed with the latest news from pages followed. A news feed that is very close to that of Facebook or X (formerly Twitter).
Currently, only certain select users, mainly public figures, can start their channel. But Meta promises that all users will be able to use this feature “in the coming months,” without specifying when. So it’s a real paradigm shift for the application, which brings it a little closer to a classic social network. Until now, only the very rarely used “Status” function, similar to Instagram or Snapchat stories, offered such a dimension on WhatsApp. The app promises that this feature will remain completely independent of messaging – and that your contacts won’t be able to see which channels you follow.
Security and advertising
It’s also an opportunity for WhatsApp to open up a little more to monetization. Currently it is not possible on WhatsApp to broadcast advertising or sponsored posts, as is the case on Facebook and Instagram. Only the WhatsApp Business software offered to professionals allows WhatsApp to make money, the rest of the application is free for users – and the end-to-end encryption of conversations does not allow collecting information for advertising . The company also plans to maintain this end-to-end encryption for channels, “for example in the case of a non-profit or healthcare organization.”
“We are also considering a way to allow admins to use their channels through our payment services, as well as the ability to promote specific channels in the directory to increase their visibility,” Meta explained in June when the channels were being tested. In other words, paying will make it possible to rank higher in search results or in news feeds. While WhatsApp appears more and more as an application that wants to diversify its communication functions, this new way of use could make it a real competitor to Instagram or even to X, which claims to become “the app for everyone”.