WhatsApp: channels will be available to ‘almost everyone’ on Tuesday

WhatsApp says its new Channels feature will be available to “almost everyone” on Tuesday. The feature was released last week, but many users are not seeing it yet.

WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart says according to WABetaInfo that everyone should be able to see the function at the end of the day on Tuesday. However, the latest version of the app is required. WhatsApp announced the global release of the major new feature last week.

The channels are separate from regular WhatsApp conversations and users cannot see which channels they follow. Channels can be filtered by country. Followers can now also leave emoji reactions to messages in channels. Admins can now edit posts in their channels for up to 30 days. They will then be automatically deleted from WhatsApp’s servers, Meta reports.

WhatsApp already announced Channels in June. The feature was initially only tested by a limited number of organizations in Singapore and Colombia. The test version was later expanded to a total of ten countries. According to WhatsApp, “thousands of channels” from organizations, sports teams, artists and more are now appearing. Creating channels is currently reserved for large organizations or famous people, but ‘in the coming months’ it will be possible for everyone to start their own channel.