What are they and why are they?

WhatsApp on Wednesday began the global rollout of channels, which enables the channel to stay updated on news shared unilaterally by organizations or public figures.

The technology company introduced Channels in June, a new feature through which users of the messaging app can transfer information in a one-way manner and receive the latest news from people and organizations directly in the “app” and privately.

The channels were first launched in ten countries, including Colombia, Chile, Morocco and Peru, with the aim of taking them to the rest of the world.

It has now happened when the company, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announced the global availability of channels on WhatsApp (“In 150 countries,” the statement said.) which will be completed within the next few weeks.

With this launch, “thousands of organizations, sports teams, artists, and intellectuals” can share their news with messaging service users through one of these channels.

WhatsApp highlighted the privacy measures accompanying the channels, as they are independent of user conversations, as they maintain conversations with their contacts, and do not show other followers of the channel that users choose to follow.

How channels work

In order to locate a channel, the platform has filters by country, although it also displays the newest, most popular and most active. You can respond to them with emojis, although the rest of your followers will only see the number of those items and not the person who chose them.