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Move your community from WhatsApp to coapp

Moving from a WhatsApp group to coapp gives your community a shared place for members, posts, pages, events, and direct messages. A successful move is usually gradual: prepare the new community, invite people clearly, and keep one agreed place for new conversations and updates.

Before you invite members​

Decide who should be able to join and how you will bring them in:

  • Use By invitation only when only people you invite should join.
  • Use Anyone can sign up when you want to share a registration link more broadly.
  • Use Approval based when you want to review registrations before accepting them. This option is not available when payments are enabled.

As an admin, open Manage > Community > Sign-up Strategies to choose the approach. Read Choose how people can sign up for the available options and their effects.

Prepare the new community​

Give members a useful starting point before you announce the move:

  1. Create a welcome post that explains why the community is moving, when the change takes effect, and where members should ask questions.
  2. Add the information people regularly need as posts or pages, such as community rules, contact details, recurring dates, or helpful links.
  3. If you use events, create or publish the upcoming events members should find in coapp.
  4. Decide which conversations belong in community posts and which are better handled as direct or group messages.

Posts can reach the community with updates and discussion. Pages are useful for information that should stay organized over time. See Create and use posts, Pages and channels, and Send messages.

Invite your WhatsApp group​

Open Manage > Community > Members and select Invite.

  • For a small group, enter members' email addresses under Invite via email.
  • For a larger group, use Invite a list of emails via CSV. Download the template, check the preview, and send the invitations.
  • To share your own announcement in WhatsApp or another channel, copy the Public registration link. Whether a person can finish registration depends on the sign-up strategy you chose.

Use the complete invitation guide for the exact invitation, CSV, and follow-up steps.

Communicate the change clearly​

Send one concise message in your WhatsApp group that includes:

  • the community link or each person's invitation link;
  • the date from which new updates and discussions should happen in coapp;
  • what members will find there first, for example the welcome post, an event, or a page; and
  • where people can get help if they cannot register.

Avoid splitting important new information between both places for an extended period. During a short transition, you can use WhatsApp to remind people to join while publishing the complete update in coapp.

Follow up after the move​

  1. Open Manage > Community > Invited members to see invitation and sign-up status.
  2. Copy a person's Unique invite link when you need to resend a personal invitation.
  3. Welcome newly registered members with a post and point them to the most useful pages, events, or discussions.
  4. Once the agreed transition period is over, state in the WhatsApp group that coapp is the place for future community updates.

You can keep WhatsApp for personal communication if that fits your community. It does not automatically move members, messages, or group history into coapp; invite members and publish the information you want available in the new community.