We discuss 10 difference between a WhatsApp Broadcast and a WhatsApp group chat. Find out which is better for your business by reading more.

WhatsApp has been around for a long time, and it has consistently made things easy for everyone. Two such convenient features are WhatsApp Broadcast and WhatsApp Group. We will be learning about them today.

WhatsApp Broadcast

Imagine this scenario: You want to send a message to some people, and they all belong to different circles. Usually, people will create a separate group with them and send a message in it. It sounds simple but spirals out of control as participants start responding to it.

How many times has your phone received a large influx of notifications from one group? It is a far too common and infuriating experience. You can save your recipients from it by using WhatsApp Broadcasts.

So let us go through the differences between WhatsApp Group and WhatsApp Broadcast.

What is the purpose of broadcasting on WhatsApp?

This feature allows you to message multiple people without the necessity of a separate group. It is similar to using the “BCC” feature in emails. You can use WhatsApp Broadcast on an Android and an iOS device once you familiarise yourself with the information below. 

How to use the WhatsApp Broadcast feature for a business?

If you are a small or upcoming business, there is no better solution for marketing than WhatsApp Broadcast. The broadcast feature on WhatsApp allows you to interact with people professionally. In the sections below, you will learn everything about this feature to grow your business. 

How to create and edit a WhatsApp Broadcast list? 

Let us begin with creating the WhatsApp broadcast list. A WhatsApp broadcast list includes all the people that will receive a message from you, without the requirement of being included in a group. You can use this feature on iPhone and Android devices, so let us go through them one by one. 

WhatsApp Broadcast for iPhone

• Open the WhatsApp application on your iPhone device.
• Go to the “Chats” option and select “Broadcast Lists” located on the top left corner of the screen.
• To create a new Broadcast List, select the option “New List”.
• The “+” symbol will allow you to add new people to this list. You can also add them by simply typing their names out. 
• When you have finished adding the names, tap the icon “Create”, and your broadcast list is ready. You will find a regular chat screen displaying all your recipients’ names on top. Finally, you can broadcast your message to the people.

Edit this WhatsApp broadcast list

• You will find a blue “I” icon. This option allows you to edit your recipients’ list.
• You may add new people or remove existing ones.
• The Edit List option allows you to change the membership status of the people in your list.

WhatsApp Broadcast for Android

• Open the WhatsApp application on your Android device.
• On clicking the three dots on the top right corner, a menu will open from which you can select New Broadcast.
• Select the people you want to broadcast the message to.
• A chat interface opens. You can type your message and share it with the list.
• Finally, to edit the list, select the “edit” option on the three dots menu and make changes to your list.

WhatsApp Group 

The group chat feature in WhatsApp enables you to send a single message to multiple recipients simultaneously. You can thus converse with a group of friends. 

How to group chat on WhatsApp Business? 

Use the steps to create a group in the standard version of WhatsApp to make one in the WhatsApp Business App.  

• Open the WhatsApp application on your Android device.
• On clicking the three dots on the top right corner, a menu will open from which you can select the New Group.
• Select the people you want to add to the group.
• Send your message.

WhatsApp groups are excellent business tools, and small businesses owners worldwide have used them to advertise their services and products, getting closer to the customers. 

You can make a WhatsApp Group to interact with your community and share product updates and promotions with your customers. The maximum limit of the WhatsApp Group is 256.

You can make multiple groups if your customer base exceeds the maximum limit, but ensure that you have saved each name beforehand. 

WhatsApp Group Vs WhatsApp Broadcast.

The significant difference between a WhatsApp Broadcast and a WhatsApp Group chat is that recipients are unaware of other people in the broadcast list. On a standard WhatsApp Group, everyone is aware of everyone else in the group. There are other differences between these two mediums given below.  

1. How many people can you add?

In a WhatsApp Group, there is a limit of 256 people. You will have to create multiple groups if you have more customers. On the other hand, there is no limit for a WhatsApp Broadcast list.

2. Who can send messages?

In a WhatsApp Broadcast list, only you can send a message. If a customer replies, it will be on a one-on-one chat. In a WhatsApp Group, any group member can send messages, and other group members can see that message. 

3. Who is the admin?

In WhatsApp Broadcast, you are the only admin, and there is no option to designate someone as an additional admin. In a Group, you can appoint different admins.

4. Does it have a chat history?

All the messages you broadcast will get added to the one-on-one chat history automatically. However, a WhatsApp Group will not have the same feature. You can save a message in a WhatsApp group by marking it with a star.

5. What if someone has blocked you?

If someone has blocked you, then your broadcast message will not get delivered to them. However, if you and another person who has blocked you are in the same group, they will be able to see everything you send to the group. The same will happen if you have blocked them because you can see all their messages on the group.

6. Who will receive your messages?

In a WhatsApp Group, people do not need to add you to the phone address book to receive messages. As long as they are in a group, everything in the group is accessible to them.

In WhatsApp Broadcast, your name must be present in their phone address book, or your broadcast message will not reach them. WhatsApp will not reveal which of your recipients has added or removed your name from their address book, but you can check the delivered list to see some people never receive any of your messages. 

7. Which participants can reply?

It is the most significant difference we see in WhatsApp Group vs WhatsApp Broadcast. In a WhatsApp Group, one reply goes to all the participants. In WhatsApp Broadcast, a reply only gets delivered to private chat. There are times when a group discussion is needed, but some responses often get lost in a sea of messages if the group is active. So, WhatsApp Broadcast is a better way of sending important notices, reminders and updates. 

8. Can people exit from your broadcast list? 

People can leave a WhatsApp Group whenever they want, and the entire group will know about it. There is no ‘leave broadcast list’ option on WhatsApp, but people can remove you from their address book to prevent further unwanted messages. You can only come to know about it if one of the people on the list is consistently not receiving your messages. It can be hard to check this if your broadcast list is long. 

9. Can recipients see each other?

No, people cannot see other recipients in the WhatsApp broadcast list but they can in a WhatsApp Group. 

You can check which member has read your messages in both groups and broadcasts. However, there is no way to tell if messages sent by other recipients in the group have gotten read or not. 

10. When to use a broadcast list vs WhatsApp group? 

A broadcast list is a perfect solution to keep your recipients from getting bombarded with replies they do not need to see. Thus, you take surveys on Broadcast because it will keep the replied messages private. You will also have a record of everything you have broadcasted in the private chat history.

The only drawback, as mentioned previously, is that there is no direct way to check if someone has removed you from their phone address book. It is also tiresome to keep a tab on the people who are not getting your messages if the participant pool is large. 

If your brand is into building a community, a WhatsApp Group is a good choice. You can add all the community members to the group and discuss things.

What are the advantages of WhatsApp Broadcast?

Excellent marketing tool

There is a clear winner in WhatsApp Group Vs Broadcast regarding business if you cannot afford to invest in professional marketing services.

You can do all the necessary things for growing your brand, like publicising your services and products and talking with customers on WhatsApp broadcast. All you need is an effective business strategy and the contact numbers of your recipients. Other than that, you can send messages in many formats via WhatsApp. 

Better customer service

WhatsApp chatbot for customer service connects you with a massive pool of people and makes it easy to communicate with them, thus improving customer support from your side. Nearly everybody has WhatsApp on their phones, so using it is a direct way of increasing your customer base. It can prove quite helpful for your business.

Final word

Now that you know the differences between WhatsApp Group Vs Broadcast for business communications, you can efficiently plan your business and customer support strategy.

A company good at interacting with its clients will get rewarded with a fast-growing customer base, a boon in the competitive, driven business world.

At Verloop.io, you can avail excellent service to use WhatsApp broadcast for business with Outreach. With Outreach, you can send proactive messages to your customers and track their performance with intuitive dashboards.

If you’re interested in more information-rich resourceful content on WhatsApp, try checking out our Comprehensive Guide to Ace Customer Support on WhatsApp.