WhatsApp Group vs Broadcast List (and Community)

Group vs broadcast at a glance

• Who sees the message: in a group, all members in one shared chat. In a broadcast, each recipient in their own private chat with you.

• Who sees replies: in a group, everyone. In a broadcast, only you.

• Who sees phone numbers: in a group, every member can see every other member's number. In a broadcast, nobody sees anyone else.

• Size: groups currently allow around 1,024 members. A broadcast list holds up to 256 contacts.

• Do they need your number saved? For a group, no. For a broadcast, yes: people who have not saved your number never receive it.

• Does the recipient know it was a broadcast? Not obviously. It arrives like a normal message from you.

• Can people leave? Members can exit a group. A broadcast recipient can only stop it by blocking you or deleting your contact.

What is a WhatsApp group?

A group is a shared chat. Anyone in it can post (unless admins limit that), and everyone reads everything. It is ideal when people need to talk to each other: a family planning a wedding, a project team, a building society, or class parents sorting out a picnic.

For one-way announcements, groups have real costs. Every member sees every other member's phone number, which matters when the members are customers or parents who never agreed to share their number. Replies like "ok" and "thanks" from 200 people bury the important message. And adding people to a group without asking is one of the fastest ways to get your number reported.

What is a broadcast list?

A broadcast list is a saved list of contacts you message at once. Each person receives your message as a private chat from you, so it feels personal and nobody sees the rest of the list. When someone replies, only you see it.

The catch is the saved-number rule: a recipient only gets your broadcast if they have your number saved in their contacts. That is WhatsApp's built-in way of making sure broadcasts go to people who know you. It also caps each list at 256 contacts. Our guide to the WhatsApp broadcast limit explains both rules and what to do when you hit them.

How to create each one

1. 1

   Create a group

   In WhatsApp, open the new chat menu and choose New group. Select members, give the group a name and photo, and tap Create. In group settings you can let only admins send messages if you want an announcement-style group.

2. 2

   Create a broadcast list

   On Android, open the three-dot menu on Chats and choose New broadcast. On iPhone, find Broadcast lists in the Chats menu or Lists and tap New list. Pick up to 256 saved contacts and tap Create. Menu names can differ slightly between app versions.

3. 3

   Create a community

   Open the Communities tab, tap New community, add a name and description, then add existing groups or create new ones. WhatsApp adds an announcement group where only admins post.

4. 4

   Create a channel

   Open the Updates tab, tap the plus or Create channel option, give it a name and follow the prompts. Share the channel link so people can follow it.

Where communities and channels fit

A community groups several related groups under one roof, such as one group per class in a school, with an announcement group that reaches all of them. In the announcement group only admins post, and WhatsApp hides members' phone numbers from other members (admins can still see them). It suits schools, housing societies and organisations that already run several groups.

A channel is a one-way feed. You post, followers read and react, but they cannot reply in the channel, and followers do not see each other's numbers. Anyone can follow by link, and they do not need to save your number. The trade-off is that people have to choose to follow, and updates sit in the Updates tab rather than in their main chats, so they are easy to miss.

Which should you use?

• Family or friends who want to chat together: a group.

• Regular updates to customers who have saved your number, up to 256 per list: a broadcast list.

• A school or society with many groups that needs one announcement channel: a community.

• Public updates to anyone who wants to follow, like a shop's offers or a creator's posts: a channel.

• A private message to each person on a list, including numbers that have not saved yours, with each person's name: a one-to-one bulk send (see below).

When none of them fit: personalised one-to-one messages

There is a common case that groups, broadcasts, communities and channels all handle badly: you have a list of numbers in Excel (parents, customers, wedding guests) who have not saved your number, you want each person to receive a private message, and you would like it to start with their name.

That is what Rapid Sender does. It is a free tool for WhatsApp that runs in your browser and sends from your own WhatsApp, linked by QR code or pairing code. Upload an Excel or CSV of up to 5,000 contacts, write the message with {{name}} or any column, attach a photo or PDF if you like, send a test to yourself, then send. Each person gets their own chat, with a random pause of a few seconds between messages and a live report of who received it. It does not post to groups, schedule messages or use the official API, and only people who know you should be on the list.

Frequently asked questions