WhatsApp and artificial intelligence
Broadcast list
A broadcast list is the WhatsApp feature that sends the same message to several contacts at once, but to each one separately: it arrives as a private chat with the sender, any reply is seen only by the sender, and nobody sees the other recipients.
Also known asbroadcast · broadcast message · bulk message · lista de difusión
How it is used in a residence
It is the alternative to a group when the residence wants to reach many people without putting them together: numbers do not cross and replies go back only to the sender. It is in the ordinary WhatsApp app and in the WhatsApp Business app at reception, alongside away messages and quick replies. It works for Thursday's water cut or the reminder about the Christmas dinner. What it does not solve is what comes next: replies arrive one by one on the same phone and get mixed up with everything else.
On the WhatsApp Business Platform, sending to many works differently: the software sends a message to each person and, if their 24-hour window is closed, it has to use an approved template. In a residence this is called an announcement. Group, community, channel and assistant are compared in WhatsApp group or assistant.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that the message reaches everyone on the list. According to WhatsApp's help pages, only people who have saved the sending number in their contacts receive it. The resident who arrived yesterday and has not saved the reception number does not get the notice, and nobody finds out that it never reached her.
Sources
Related terms
- AnnouncementAn announcement is the official notice a residence's management sends at once to all residents or to a group: a water cut, a change of hours, a new rule. What sets it apart from a message in a group chat is that it goes one way only and to a chosen audience.
- WhatsApp CommunityA WhatsApp Community brings several groups together in one space, with an announcement group in which only the admins write. It is used to organise a large number of people into subgroups, such as floors, buildings or years, and to reach them all with a single notice.