What you need to know
- Meta just launched a new WhatsApp app for Windows.
- The app supports video calls with up to eight people, audio calls with up to 32 people, and is faster than previous WhatsApp experiences on Windows.
- WhatsApp also received an update this week that added new controls for admins of communities and a new way to see which groups you have in common with people.
WhatsApp has a new app on Windows 11 and Windows 10. Meta just announced the application, which is available for download. In addition to being faster than previous iterations of WhatsApp on Windows, the new app supports video calls of up to eight people and audio calls with up to 32 participants.
Multi-device capabilities rolled out to WhatsApp in 2021, allowing users to sync messages across devices even if their phone was off or offline. That functionality raised the profile of WhatsApp for the web and WhatsApp on Windows.
While WhatsApp has been usable on PCs for years in some format, such as the web, the new Windows app feels like a concerted effort to bring WhatsApp on Windows to parity with the app on other platforms.
Alongside the new WhatsApp app for Windows, Meta shipped some changes to WhatsApp that extend across platforms. Here’s what’s new:
New controls for admins
As more people join communities, we want to give group admins more control over their group privacy, so we’ve built a simple tool that gives admins the ability to decide who is able to join a group.When an admin chooses to share their group’s invite link, or make their group joinable in a community, they now have more control over who can join. Groups are where people have some of their most intimate conversations and it’s important that admins are able to easily decide who can and cannot come in.
Easily see groups in common
With the growth of Communities and their larger groups, we want to make it easy to know which groups you have in common with someone. Whether you’re trying to remember the name of a group you know you share with someone or you want to see the groups you’re both in, you can now easily search a contact’s name to see your groups in common.
These features will start rolling out globally over the coming weeks, as we continue to build new tools to make groups the best experience for admins and members alike.
