Indian Celebrities and Cricket Team Join WhatsApp Channels in India
In June, Instagram, owned by Meta, introduced a feature called Broadcast Channels. This feature allows users to join one-way groups consisting of celebrities, influencers, world leaders, and other notable personalities. By joining these groups, users can receive private updates from the individuals they follow. While users cannot respond, they can react to the messages. This feature provides a means for these individuals to communicate directly with their followers without feeling overwhelmed by the large number of people following them. Due to its popularity, the feature has now been added to another Meta app, WhatsApp, and has been introduced in India as well.
The WhatsApp Channel feature was rolled out globally just a few hours ago and was announced by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Introducing the feature, he wrote on Facebook: “Today we’re rolling out WhatsApp Channels globally and adding thousands of new channels for people to follow on WhatsApp. You can find the channels in the new ‘Updates’ tab.”
Some of the prominent personalities who will launch their WhatsApp channels on the launch include Indian Cricket Team, Katrina Kaif, Diljit Dosanjh, Akshay Kumar, Vijay Deverakonda, Neha Kakkar and many more.
Launching the official WhatsApp channel of the Indian cricket team, BCCI said, “The Indian cricket team is excited to partner with WhatsApp to launch the channels. We will start our partnership with WhatsApp with the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 scheduled to start in October. We will use the channels to generate excitement and support as India prepares to host the marquee event after a decade of waiting.WhatsApp channels keep fans aware of important and accurate information and news about match schedules, timings, scorecards, etc. Get WhatsApp channels and never miss out on on-field and off-field updates.
WhatsApp channels are here
According to the press release shared by the company, WhatsApp channels work in the same way as Instagram channels. However, there is a catch. WhatsApp users cannot search for others. But this feature changes that. WhatsApp said: “You can now find channels to follow that are automatically filtered based on your country. You can also view channels that are new, most active and most popular based on number of followers.
In addition to this, users can also react to updates. Although the group members and admin can both see the total number of reactions and the emoticons sent, neither the admin nor the members can see who sent the reactions. Whenever an admin forwards an update to chats or groups, it includes a link back to the channel so people can get more information.
Who a person chooses to follow is not visible to anyone else. Channels can be found in a new tab called Updates – where users can see the status and channels they want to follow.
