WhatsApp to notify users ‘when channels are available’

The popular messaging app, WhatsApp, is rolling out an update to its feature, “WhatsApp Channels” — a one-way broadcast private tool — in its recent version update, WABetaInfo reported.

The latest update on the social site is the ability to be informed when a channel is available to certain users.

WhatsApp users on Android phones will be able to receive a notification when they can access a specific channel on the messenger.

As seen in this screenshot, the beta testers will see a new sheet seeking permission to inform them about the availability of the channels.

The WhatsApp news tracker dubbed the update “a very unexpected feature” as the company has never offered a tool to send notifications to users about the availability of a new feature.

To check if this feature has been enabled on their phones, the users need to open a channel invite link. But since the channels tool is only available in Singapore and Colombia, the users need to open a channel created in one of these countries.

Though the users will be able to follow the channels only when the channel is available in their respective countries, they will at least get the feature that will notify them when the channels are available for them to join.

The feature is being rolled out to some beta testers on Android who download the latest update available on Google Play Store. It will be released to even more people over the coming days.