The much-awaited WhatsApp Communities feature is rolling out to users globally, and everyone is wondering what exactly this feature is. Not only that, but many also compare WhatsApp communities to groups and question the need for the former. Well, we're here to answer all that and more. WhatsApp communities, for the unaware, allow users to bring together related groups and organize them in a better way. This means that thousands of users can participate in a community, which hosts several subgroups, and get the necessary information in time. There are several other differences between WhatsApp communities vs groups, be it the number of users, admin controls, privacy features and more. So let's dive in and take a closer look.

Note: We have tested WhatsApp Communities on both Android and iPhone while working on the comparison. We tested the WhatsApp Community feature on beta as well as stable versions on iOS 16, Android 13 and Android 12.

First, WhatsApp groups and communities are more similar than different. WhatsApp groups are a space where you can invite users, and everyone can text each other on a related topic. Groups are useful for discussing important topics, planning and organizing events, or simply staying in touch with loved ones.

WhatsApp Communities, on the other hand, is a collection of relevant groups under one roof. This means that a community is dependent on groups and would not exist without them. This feature is designed to provide communities, organizations, schools and several others who primarily use WhatsApp for daily communication. WhatsApp communities give them a way to better organize different groups and distribute information more easily.