WhatsApp has for years been one of the most widely used messaging apps globally, but in terms of features, Telegram has always had the lead thanks to its ease of use and multiple chat options. Meta-owned WhatsApp has taken a cue from Telegram and introduced a better chat experience for larger groups with Communities recently. And now it is working on WhatsApp Channels, a newsletter tool inspired by Telegram.

In the last two months, we have heard on multiple occasions that WhatsApp Newsletter is in development and could be released sooner rather than later. But a new report from WABetaInfo suggests that WhatsApp has renamed Newsletter to Channels ahead of its public release.

These WhatsApp Channels will sit under a new Updates tab that replaces Status on the main screen — WhatsApp Statuses will then appear in a horizontally scrollable carousel similar to Instagram Stories. In the Channels section below Statuses, you will see a list of brands and creators that you have subscribed to.

Since you cannot reply to these one-way newsletters, Channels won’t be end-to-end encrypted. But that doesn’t compromise your privacy, as others, even those in your contacts list, cannot see the newsletters you have subscribed to. And to make Channels more accessible and easier to look up, they will use handles, presumably like the ones you have on Instagram and Twitter.

The closest thing to Channels currently available on WhatsApp is Broadcasts, which are a tad tedious to use from the creator's end as the recipients must have your number saved as a contact to keep the messages from going into the void, and WhatsApp treats Broadcasts as personal chats, which isn't ideal in all situations.

The new “WhatsApp Channels” name appeared in the beta v2.23.8.6 of WhatsApp for Android. However, you will have to wait a bit longer to try it, as the feature is still under development and will take some time to reach everyone.

Telegram has supported Channels for years, and the platform has garnered large communities around these channels from brands like The New York Times and some more casual ones sending you daily wallpapers, quotes, and more. How soon WhatsApp will be able to catch up and have its own similarly large communities is hard to say, but given its billions of daily active users, it shouldn’t be that difficult.