A report last month that talked about WhatsApp planning to bring something known as Communities to the app. We’re now learning more about this upcoming feature, along with information on how it could operate within the app.

WABetaInfo reports (via) that WhatsApp Communities will function similarly to Discord communities and channels. This means that Community admins on WhatsApp will have the ability to bring other groups under its umbrella. Moreover, admins can reportedly invite more users into the Community through Community Invite Links on WhatsApp.

There are a couple of screenshots detailing this feature, and we expect to encounter a few more in the coming days. It’s worth noting that Communities on WhatsApp will be end-to-end encrypted.

The Community feature first appeared with WhatsApp beta v2.21.21.6 in October

According to previous reports, Communities will co-exist alongside Groups. Keeping this in mind, we expect WhatsApp to make some visual changes to differentiate between the two.

The presence of the feature was first uncovered by XDA last month with WhatsApp beta v2.21.21.6. It was speculated at the time that this feature could go beyond the functionality of Groups on WhatsApp. This new revelation seems to corroborate that.

The Community feature is seemingly under development for WhatsApp beta on Android and iOS. The source notes that since this is an early leak, its appearance could change significantly when it reaches beta testers. As of now, it looks pretty similar to an individual or group chat window.

Interestingly, the display image for the Community appears to have rounded edges. WABetaInfo notes that this could be in place to help differentiate between Groups and Communities.

Although the screenshots only show the iOS version of Communities, we expect the Android version to look fairly similar. There’s no release date available right now. But we probably don’t have to wait much longer to find out.

With WhatsApp getting multiple critical updates over the past few months, it can be hard to keep track of them all. Earlier today, the instant messaging app announced a revised version of its multi-device feature. This would finally allow users to access WhatsApp on up to four devices even when the primary device is off or has no internet connection.