Summary

  • WhatsApp is streamlining the process of creating groups and communities by centralizing all creation tools within the “Chats” tab, making it easier to start new chats, groups, and communities from a single location.
  • The messaging giant is also working on improving link previews by displaying favicons (website icons) within message bubbles, providing a quick visual cue to identify the source of a shared link.
  • Lastly, WhatsApp seems to be testing a feature that would let users add images to poll options within Channels, creating a more engaging and informative voting experience with visual cues alongside text descriptions.



WhatsApp is the world’s most used messaging service, with over 2 billion monthly active users. The app hasn’t just amassed such a huge user base by luck — a constant influx of new features, alongside polished fundamental ones that we’ve come to expect from a messaging application in 2025 all play a huge role.

Last year (well, last month to sound less dramatic), WhatsApp was found to be working on an update to the group calling feature. That, seemingly, wasn’t the only update to groups that WhatsApp has been working on. New hints point at the messaging giant working on a feature to simplify group creation, alongside two other significant additions to the core WhatsApp experience.

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The in-development features were first highlighted by WABetaInfo, indicating that WhatsApp is looking to make the community and group chat creation process much simpler than it currently is. For reference, currently, to create a new community, users need to head to its dedicated tab from the bottom panel and then tap on the ‘Start your community’ floating pill.

With the upcoming change, WhatsApp on Android will allow you to create new communities directly from the ‘Chats’ tab, centralizing the option to create new groups, chats, and communities in one single place, potentially within the floating ‘+’ button menu. The report suggests that the functionality has begun showing up for some beta testers with WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.1.11, complete with a banner to highlight the change.


Screenshots of WhatsApp's banner to indicate that the option to create new communities has been moved to the Chats screen.

Source: WABetaInfo



The messaging giant is also reportedly working on making it easier for users to detect which website a received link will redirect them to with a slightly enhanced version of link previews.

According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp beta version 2.25.1.13 for Android introduces new favicons within a link’s message bubble, highlighting the company’s logo the way it appears on its website — but only if the link is shared with a rich preview.

(left) New in-message favicons for link previews and (right) support for images in polls.

Source: WABetaInfo

Lastly, the messaging giant also seems to be prepping support to make polls on WhatsApp a lot more engaging. As found in WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.1.17, the poll creation menu now offers the ability for the creator to attach photos to poll options, albeit only within Channels. The update should offer a richer poll voting experience, providing users with visual cues alongside the text ones. After the feature is made widely available within Channels, it is, eventually, expected to make its way to groups and individual chats.


All three features — enhanced link previews, a streamlined community and group chat creation process, and images within polls, are expected to roll out in stable with a future WhatsApp update.