How to create a WhatsApp community, step by step

To create a WhatsApp community, open the Chats tab, tap the new chat icon, then New community and Get started. Enter a name of up to 100 characters, add a description and icon, and confirm. WhatsApp creates an announcement group automatically; you then link up to 100 groups, with up to 2,000 members across the whole community.

As of October 2026, communities can be created on Android, iPhone and WhatsApp Web, but not on the WhatsApp Business app. This guide covers the steps on each, linking groups you already run, how the announcement group behaves, inviting people, the limits, and handing over or closing a community, with a school as the worked example. If you're not sure a community is what you need, community vs group vs broadcast vs channel compares the options.

How to create a WhatsApp community on Android and iPhone

1. 1Open the Chats tab and tap the new chat icon: a speech bubble with a plus on Android, a plus in a circle on iPhone.
2. 2Tap New community, then Get started.
3. 3Enter the community name, up to 100 characters.
4. 4Add a description that says what the community is for, and an icon if you like.
5. 5Tap the tick on Android, or Create on iPhone.

On WhatsApp Web, click the new chat icon in Chats, then New community and the arrow, fill in the same details and click the tick. The community then appears in your Chats list with its announcement group already set up, and the next job is adding groups. If New community doesn't appear, update WhatsApp, and check that you're not on the WhatsApp Business app.

Can you create a community on the WhatsApp Business app?

No. WhatsApp's help centre says it isn't currently possible to create a community on the WhatsApp Business app; a Business account can only take part in communities it is already in. So a shop, clinic or school that runs its customer chats on the Business app has to create the community from a regular WhatsApp account, usually a staff member's, and then make colleagues community admins so it doesn't depend on one phone. The Business app can create a channel, which suits one-way updates; see how to create a WhatsApp channel.

How to add existing groups to a community

Only an admin of a group can link it to a community. Other members can suggest existing groups, which wait for a community admin's approval under Pending groups. On Android or iPhone:

1. 1Open the community: tap More options (Android) or More (iPhone) in Chats, then Communities, and choose it. On iPhone, tap See all next to the community.
2. 2Tap Add group, then Add existing group.
3. 3Select the groups you're an admin of and continue.
4. 4Review each group's permissions and whether it will be Visible or Hidden to community members.
5. 5Tap Add to community.

You can also start from the group: open it, tap its name, then Add group to a community, and pick New community or Existing community. On WhatsApp Web, open the community and click Add group, then Add existing group. Three things can get in the way:

• A group with pending join requests can't be added until an admin deals with them.
• WhatsApp may block linking for a few hours, sometimes up to 24, after spam reports from members or when the group has recently added people.
• Every member of a linked group joins the community and its announcement group, so a few large groups can use up the 2,000-member total quickly.

New groups created inside the community take a name of up to 100 characters and an optional description of up to 2,048, and each holds up to 1,024 members. By default any member can create one. To keep that to admins, open the community, tap More options → Community settings → Who can add new groups, and choose Only community admins.

How does the community announcement group work?

Everyone in the community is in the announcement group, and only community admins can post in it. Members can reply to and react to announcements and vote in polls. Admins are notified of replies and can delete or report them, but can't switch replies off, and nobody can leave the announcement group without leaving the whole community.

Two pieces of WhatsApp's own advice are worth following. Sending one announcement instead of repeating the same message across groups may help reduce the risk of being flagged as spam. And its community guide tells admins not to @mention members in the announcement group, because doing so shows that person's phone number to the whole community.

How to invite people into a WhatsApp community

Only community admins can invite people. On Android, open the community, tap More options → Community info → Invite, then send the link through WhatsApp, copy it, share it to another app or show a QR code. On iPhone, the same options sit under Community info → Add members → Invite to community via link. Add members, on both, picks people from your contacts, who can then accept the invitation or exit.

Anyone with the link can join without an admin's approval, and it can be forwarded, so send it privately and reset it from the same screen if it spreads; the group invite link guide covers link safety. Once inside, members find the community's groups under Groups you can join, and either join straight away or send a request, depending on each group's settings.

WhatsApp community limits in 2026

Older guides, and one of WhatsApp's own learning-centre pages, still say a community holds 50 groups; the help centre's current figure is 100. In practice the 2,000-member total runs out long before the group count, since 100 full groups would hold over 100,000 people. WhatsApp group limits lists every related number.

Community admins, handing over and closing a community

Community admins and group admins are separate roles. Up to 20 community admins send announcements, invite people and manage the groups; each linked group keeps its own admins for its own settings. To promote someone, open the community, tap its name, then View members, tap the person and choose Make Admin.

The owner can hand the community to another community admin: in Community info, tap and hold that admin, then Assign new owner and Confirm. If the owner deletes their WhatsApp account, ownership moves to another admin automatically, or the community is deactivated if there's no other admin. Deactivating, at the bottom of Community info, is the owner's decision alone: every group is unlinked and keeps working as an ordinary group, nobody can post in the announcement group again, and it can't be undone. Deleting a WhatsApp group covers closing the groups afterwards.

Worked example: a school community

A school in Nagpur with 1,400 parents might set up one community: circulars and holiday notices in the announcement group, one linked group per class section for its teacher and parents, and a staff group set to Hidden. Class teachers are admins of their own groups, leaving the community admin seats for the principal and the office. Count before linking every section: 1,400 parents and 80 staff leave room for 520 more people under the 2,000 cap. WhatsApp groups for schools goes further.

Where one community can't cover everyone, such as two branches with separate parent groups, the same notice has to go into each group. WavesFlo can post one message into every group your connected numbers belong to, on a schedule and within each number's daily and hourly ceilings; it doesn't create communities or add members. Sending one message to many WhatsApp groups shows how.