Send a message to multiple WhatsApp groups at once (4 ways)

To send one message to several WhatsApp groups, forward it: up to five chats per forward, but only one group if the message was itself forwarded. If you run the groups, link them in a community and post once in its announcement group. A broadcast list can't include groups. For dozens of groups, use a scheduled group campaign.

Forwarding suits a handful of groups, and a community suits groups you administer. Past that, forwarding the same message into twenty groups by hand is slow, easy to get wrong and impossible to measure afterwards. Sending to one group, or to many people privately, is a different job: see how to send a group message on WhatsApp.

How do I forward a message to several WhatsApp groups?

Write the message once in any chat, then forward it. As of October 2026, WhatsApp's help centre gives these steps for Android and iPhone:

1. 1Open the chat that holds the message, and tap and hold the message. On WhatsApp Web, hover over it and open the menu.
2. 2Tap Forward. On Android it is the arrow icon; on iPhone, tap Forward in the menu, then the arrow icon.
3. 3Search for or select up to five chats. If you wrote the message yourself, all five can be groups.
4. 4Send it.

The catch is forwarded messages. Your own messages go out with no label, but a message someone else sent you shows Forwarded, and then only one of the five chats can be a group. Once it has passed through five or more chats it reads Forwarded many times and goes to one chat at a time. The forward limit guide has the history and the workarounds.

How do I post one message to every group in a community?

If you run the groups, link them in a community. Every member of every linked group is added to the community's announcement group, where only community admins can post, so one message reaches everyone at once. WhatsApp's help centre notes that an announcement, instead of the same message repeated across groups, may help reduce the risk of being flagged as spam.

1. 1Create the community on the regular WhatsApp app; the WhatsApp Business app can't create one. In the Chats tab, tap New chat, then New community, then Get started, and name it.
2. 2Add your existing groups to it, up to 100.
3. 3Open the community's Announcements group and send the message as you would in any chat.

Can you add a WhatsApp group to a broadcast list?

No. A broadcast list holds individual contacts only, up to 256 per list, and only those who have saved your number receive it. Lists can't be made on WhatsApp Web, Windows or Mac, and where WhatsApp's monthly broadcast limit has rolled out, it allows up to 35 free broadcast messages a month. WhatsApp broadcast limits covers the rest.

Whichever method you use, format the message before it goes anywhere: a bold first line and a short list survive a busy group far better than a paragraph. The free WhatsApp text formatter previews exactly how it will look.

Send to dozens of groups with a group campaign

A group campaign does the forwarding job in one pass: you choose the groups once, and the message goes into each of them on a schedule, paced across your numbers. Before you start:

• The numbers that will send must be members of the groups. A number can only post into a group it belongs to, and in a group where only admins can send, it has to be an admin.
• Decide whether this is a message for the whole room. A group post reaches every member, and no member can be left out. If some people should not see it, send to a contact list instead.
• Connect more than one number if you are reaching many groups, so the work is shared rather than piled onto one number.

Step by step

1. 1Create a new campaign and choose WhatsApp groups as the audience.
2. 2Select the target groups. Every group your connected numbers belong to is listed, deduplicated across numbers.
3. 3Choose the message source: generated from instructions, a saved message from your library, or a custom message typed as it should be sent.
4. 4Attach an image, video, audio file or document if the post needs one. Your copy becomes its caption.
5. 5Set the delivery schedule, inside your posting window and allowed weekdays.
6. 6Add an approval step if someone else should sign off, run the pre-send check, and send a test to your own phone.
7. 7Launch, and watch the queue drain message by message.

Time it to each group

Groups do not share a rhythm. Check each group's busiest-hours histogram before scheduling, and where the groups peak at very different times, split them into two campaigns rather than posting everything at an hour that suits nobody. The group marketing guide goes deeper on reading a group, and how to schedule a WhatsApp message compares every scheduling option.

What pacing does to a group campaign

A group campaign is paced like any other. Each post waits a randomised 30 to 300 seconds after the last, each number stays inside its daily and hourly ceiling, and nothing goes out during quiet hours. A campaign into a hundred groups therefore takes a while by design — and finishes on schedule because the posts are spread across several numbers.

Measure group by group

When the campaign closes, look at delivery and read rates for each group rather than one campaign-wide figure. Groups that never respond are the ones to drop from the next campaign. Remember that read rates are a floor: a member who reads a post in a notification, without opening the group, is not counted. The metrics guide explains what else to report.

Choosing a tool for this? WavesFlo vs Periskope for group campaigns compares the two most often weighed together, including where Periskope is the better pick.