WhatsApp community vs group vs broadcast vs channel

A WhatsApp group is one chat where up to 1,024 people can all post by default. A community links up to 100 groups and 2,000 people under one announcement group, where only admins post. A broadcast list privately messages up to 256 contacts who saved your number; a channel is a public one-way feed with no published follower limit.

The four are built for different jobs, and the wrong pick shows up later as exposed phone numbers, replies nobody can manage, or an audience that hits a ceiling. Below: one comparison table, how communities work in practice, broadcast lists and channels set against groups, a decision guide for six common situations, and where a campaign tool fits.

How do WhatsApp groups, communities, broadcast lists and channels differ?

Each figure is explained in the full list of WhatsApp group limits. Two rows decide most choices: who can post, and who sees whose number. Read the community column carefully. Numbers are hidden in the announcement group only; inside each linked group, members see each other's numbers exactly as in any other group.

How does a WhatsApp community work?

A community is a container for groups. Creating one gives you an announcement group automatically; you then link up to 100 groups, either new ones or existing groups you're an admin of. Unless admins restrict it, members can create new groups in the community too, and can suggest existing ones for admins to approve. As of October 2026, communities can be created on the regular WhatsApp app but not on the WhatsApp Business app, which can only take part in communities it has joined.

• The announcement group: every community member is in it, and only community admins can post announcements and polls. Members reply and react; replies sit under each announcement, where admins can delete or report them but can't switch them off.
• Phone numbers: in the announcement group, your number is visible only to community admins, people who have it saved and people who already have it from other chats. Members can see who the admins are; only admins can see who the members are.
• Linked groups: each is an ordinary group with its own 1,024 cap, its own admins and its own Group permissions. Members find visible ones under Groups you can join, then join straight away or request to; groups set to Hidden aren't listed, so members join those only when added or invited.
• General chat: an optional group any member can join, with the usual 1,024 cap. Community admins are its admins by default.
• Leaving: you can't leave the announcement group without leaving the community, and leaving the community takes you out of every group in it. Removing a member from the community removes them from its groups too.

Community admins and group admins are separate roles. A community takes up to 20 admins, who send announcements, invite people, link or unlink groups and can remove someone from the whole community. Each linked group keeps its own admins, as many as it needs, who run that group's settings and members. The community's creator can't be removed as an admin. To leave without closing it, they first make another community admin the owner (Community info, tap and hold that admin, Assign new owner). Deactivating instead closes the community for everyone and can't be undone, though its linked groups carry on as ordinary groups.

What is the difference between a WhatsApp broadcast list and a group?

A broadcast list looks like a group from the sender's side and like a private chat from the recipient's. Each person receives the message as a one-to-one chat, nobody sees who else got it, and replies come back to you alone. The catch is reach. Only people who have saved your number receive it, each list holds 256 contacts, and broadcast lists can't be created or viewed on WhatsApp Web, the Windows and Mac apps or other linked devices. As of October 2026, WhatsApp is also rolling out a monthly cap of 35 free broadcast messages in some countries (Settings → Broadcasts shows your count). The broadcast limit guide tracks that cap.

Pick a group when members should hear each other. Pick a broadcast list when every reply should become a private conversation with you, and the audience already has your number saved.

How is a WhatsApp channel different from a group?

A channel is the opposite of a group in almost every row. It has no published follower limit, followers can't see each other, and it lives in the Updates tab, away from chats. Followers can't reply to updates or message the admins. They can react with an emoji, vote in a poll and, when an admin posts a question, send an answer that goes only to the admins. Every channel is public. Anyone can find it through the directory, search or a link, and you can't make a private one or remove a follower. Updates go out as the channel, so followers don't see an admin's number, though admins see each other's.

Use a channel for news you would happily pin to a noticeboard in the street. Anything meant only for members belongs in a group or a community.

Which should you use? Six common situations

• Residents' association: a community. Notices about water cuts, maintenance and meetings go in the announcement group, where residents' numbers stay private, and each block or wing gets a linked group for discussion. Count heads first: every resident counts towards the 2,000 cap.
• School: a community for the school, with circulars in the announcement group and one linked group per class. Class teachers can be admins of their own class group without taking one of the community's 20 admin seats. WhatsApp groups for schools goes further.
• Coaching batch: one group per batch. Turn off Send new messages if the group is for schedules and results, or leave it on for doubt-clearing, and link the batches into a community once there are several. See WhatsApp for coaching institutes.
• Deal alerts to buyers: a group where only admins post, or a channel. In the group, buyers can tap your name in Group info to message you directly, but they see each other's numbers. The channel hides them and has no published follower limit, but it is public and buyers can't reply to an update, so every update needs a link to chat with you. WhatsApp groups for real estate covers the broker version.
• Reseller network: groups split by region or product line, because resellers need to ask questions and share photos in the open. Link them in a community while the whole network is under 2,000 people; past that, keep separate groups and post price lists into each.
• Company announcements: a community's announcement group, or one group with Send new messages off. Not a channel, because every channel is public. And since communities can't be created from the WhatsApp Business app, the community has to be set up on the regular app.

When the same post has to go into many groups

A community solves the notice-for-everyone problem only inside one community, only up to its 2,000 members and only for its admins. Posting the same price list into thirty separate reseller groups is a different job. WhatsApp's help centre notes that one community announcement, rather than the same message repeated across groups, may help reduce the risk of being flagged as spam. So use the community wherever it covers everyone, and where it can't, space the posts out rather than sending them in one burst. WavesFlo campaigns post into WhatsApp groups that a connected number is a member of, paced across your numbers, with delivery and read rates for each group. They don't post community announcements, create groups or add members. Sending one message to many WhatsApp groups walks through the steps.