The mysterious case of the WhatsApp broadcast list
For a very long time, I have been using the broadcast feature that is neatly tucked inside WhatsApp. For the uninitiated, the broadcast feature is basically a means to transmit one piece of information (text or graphical) to a list of contacts that you have already created. Unlike the groups feature that enables many-to-many communication, this facilitates a one-to-many transfer of information. Remember that aunty or grandpa who sends you good morning every day? Chances are, they are ‘broadcasting’ the message to you.
Over the course of the last few months, Whatsapp is slowing making it harder for regular users like myself to broadcast messages. Here are some of my key observations to point in that direction.
- The broadcast lists are no longer accessible in the Whatsapp Web service. I no longer can share articles to my students from my PC or Mac computers.
- In the mobile phone, it was previously possible to forward a message to broadcast lists. That is now no longer possible.
Given that these changes happened rather recently, I believe Whatsapp is either (1) trying to reduce the spread of fake news (which has now become super common) or (2) trying to move customers to a business account to make use of such features.
I may be wrong with this deduction. Hopefully, subsequent updates would shine more light on the matter. In the meanwhile, if you are someone like me, who likes to share useful resources to your students/clients/friends, there may be a work around. Have over to blue stacks, install a virtual android system, install the regular WhatsApp app to use a more feature packed version. On the other hand, you may also choose to create a business account.”
