WhatsApp users to get notification for channels' availability

Meta-owned instant messenger, WhatsApp, is rolling out the ability to be informed when a channel is available to certain users on Android, WABetaInfo reported.

The update is a follow-up of the app's one-way broadcast private tool, "WhatsApp Channels", which will notify the users about the tool's availability on their phones. 

As seen in the screenshot provided by WABetaInfo, the beta testers will see a new sheet seeking permission to inform them about the availability of the channels, if the feature is enabled on their versions of WhatsApp. 

To check if this feature has been enabled on their phones, the users need to open a channel invite link. But since the channels tool is only available in Singapore and Colombia, the users need to open a channel created in one of these countries.

Though the users will be able to follow the channels only when the channel is available in their respective countries, they will at least get the feature that will notify them when the channels are available for them to join.

The WhatsApp news tracker dubbed the update "a very unexpected feature" as the company has never offered a tool to send notifications to users about the availability of a new feature.

The feature is being rolled out to some beta testers on Android who download the latest update available on Google Play Store. It will be released to even more people over the coming days.