San Francisco, Apr 23 (IANS): Meta-owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature called "channels", a new one-to-many tool for broadcasting information on iOS.

According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp plans to rename the Status tab "Updates" in order to include channels within this section.

A WhatsApp channel is a private tool in which phone numbers and user information are always kept private.

Messages received within a channel, on the other hand, are not end-to-end encrypted because the concept of one-to-many makes little sense for channels, according to the report.

Further, the report pointed out that as this is an optional extension of private messaging rather than pivoting to a public social network, people can choose which channels they want to follow and no one else can see who they follow, regardless of whether they have added them as contacts or not.

The channels feature will also accept handles, allowing users to find a certain WhatsApp channel by just typing their username into WhatsApp.

This feature is intended to increase channel accessibility, making it easier for users to receive updates that they like, the report said.

Channels are currently under development and they will be released in a future update of the app.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp has introduced a 'Keep in Chat' feature that will allow users in a disappearing message thread to long-press a message and choose to save it.

WhatsApp has called this "sender superpower," and it will be the choice of the sender to allow others in the chat to keep certain messages for later.