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Guide · Channels · For the owner who wants more people to follow the shop's channel

Getting your WhatsApp channel found: the directory, how WhatsApp recommends channels, links and forwards, and where promoted channels and paid subscriptions stand

Opening a channel for the shop is quick. Getting people to follow it is the hard part. WhatsApp's own Help Center explains how people find a channel, what WhatsApp looks at when it recommends one, and how links and forwards spread it. Meta's pages also show where promoted channels and paid channel subscriptions stood on the day we read them.

Published 14 October 2026

What a channel is, in one paragraph

WhatsApp's article About creating a WhatsApp Channel says a channel lets you share one-way updates to an unlimited audience. Followers can't reply to updates or send messages to channel admins. They can only add emoji reactions or vote in polls. They won't see your WhatsApp profile name, picture or phone number. The article About WhatsApp Channels adds that updates sit in a separate tab of the app, the Updates tab, away from personal chats and calls. Notifications are muted by default, and people aren't automatically subscribed to any channel: they choose to follow.

See also

What followers see, what you can post and what gets a channel suspended is in our guide WhatsApp Channels for a business. Admins, ownership, polls and insights are in running a WhatsApp channel for your business.

The three ways people find a channel

WhatsApp's article About creating a WhatsApp Channel lists how people can find your channel:

An outside link
Share a link to your channel on other websites or apps. The channel and its updates open in WhatsApp.
Sharing inside WhatsApp
Followers can share channels they like with their WhatsApp contacts.
Browsing the app
People can search for channels or browse the directory. Some channels are sorted into categories there.

WhatsApp's articles How to create a WhatsApp Channel and How to share your channel say every channel has a link and a QR code that lead back to it, and you can share them to your chats, your Status and other apps. From the channel you can send the link to up to five chats or groups, or tap Copy link and paste it anywhere.

The directory is filtered by country and language

WhatsApp's article How to find and follow WhatsApp Channels says the channel list is filtered based on the viewer's country and language. In the directory, people can:

Browse and sort
Browse by category, filter by topic, and sort channels by new, popular or most active.
Change region
See the channels available in other countries by changing the region next to the globe in the directory.
Preview first
Tap a channel's name to preview its most recent updates, and open its channel info page, before following.

If a channel doesn't appear in someone's local directory, the article says to search for it by its exact name, or ask the channel admin for a direct link. A channel deleted by its admin, or removed for breaking the WhatsApp Channels Guidelines, can no longer be found or followed.

Our reading

A customer whose phone is set to a different country or language may not see your channel in their list. A direct link can reach a customer the directory doesn't show your channel to, so put it where your customers already are.

What WhatsApp says it uses to recommend channels

WhatsApp's article About how WhatsApp recommends channels says that when people explore or search for channels, WhatsApp recommends them based on things like:

The channel itself
Its updates, number of followers, reactions to its updates, and how often it posts.
How it compares
How similar its content (channel name, channel info and updates) is to popular channels.
The viewer
Their general location, such as country or city, their language, their device and app version, and their activity on channels, including the channels they follow, view or search for.
What is not used
Personal chats and calls stay end-to-end encrypted and aren't used to recommend channels.

People see recommendations in the Find channels to follow section, at the bottom of the Updates tab on a phone. The article also says some channels may pay to promote their channel, and that these promoted channels are clearly labeled "Ad".

Our reading

The parts of that list you can influence are posting regularly, earning reactions and followers, and a clear name and description that say what the channel is about. The rest depends on who is looking.

Your channel info page

WhatsApp's article How to manage channel info and settings says to customize your channel info page to stand out and attract people to your content.

Name
You can change it at any time. It is limited to 100 characters.
Description
Optional. WhatsApp suggests a few words that help potential followers understand what the channel is about.
Icon
Optional. An image that helps the channel stand out.
Reactions
Under Channel settings, choose Any emoji, Default only, or None.

How to create a WhatsApp Channel adds that you can invite up to 16 additional admins. Its note that channel verification "isn't publicly available yet" is about channels in general. How to find and follow WhatsApp Channels says a verified badge means WhatsApp has verified the channel as authentic, and the WhatsApp Business app has its own route to a verified channel, covered in the guide linked below.

See also

What a verified channel needs on the WhatsApp Business app is in our guide WhatsApp Channels for a business.

Forwards: how updates travel

WhatsApp's article How to forward from channels to chat or status says followers can forward an update to individual or group chats, or to their Status.

How far
Up to 5 individual or group chats at a time. An update or link that has already been forwarded can go to five more chats, with at most one group. One that has been forwarded many times can only go to one chat at a time.
What everyone sees
The total number of forwards, below the update. Nobody can see the names of the people who forwarded it.
From the web
You can't forward from a channel to Status on WhatsApp Web. Use the phone.

WhatsApp's article How to forward to your channel says that as an admin you can forward messages and updates into your channel. They are labeled "Forwarded", and a forwarded update links to the channel that first posted it. The article reminds admins that everything shared is public: followers see all updates since they followed, anyone can see the last 30 days of updates, and WhatsApp reviews channel updates against the channels guidelines.

WhatsApp's article About safety and privacy on channels adds what admins see of the people who follow. Admins who aren't in a follower's contacts see their profile name and, depending on the follower's settings, their profile photo. Admins who have the follower saved as a contact can see their full phone number.

Our reading

An update worth forwarding is how a channel reaches people who have never heard of it. The forward count under each update is a rough sign of which posts did that.

Promoted channels: described, still marked coming soon

On 16 June 2025 Meta's newsroom introduced promoted channels, alongside channel subscriptions and ads in Status, in WhatsApp's Updates tab. Meta wrote that, for the first time, channel admins had a way to increase their channels' visibility in the directory, and said it would roll these features out slowly over the following months.

The WhatsApp Business page Ads in Status and Channels says promoted channel ads help a business get discovered by boosting its channel in the directory. When we read the English page on 14 October 2026, Promoted channels was still marked "Coming soon". The Help Center article About becoming a promoted channel in the directory gives no date. When we read it on 14 October 2026, its text said the feature "may not be available to you yet" (the sentence names channel subscriptions rather than promoted channels). It links to a page where you can sign up for updates on availability in your region.

Our reading

Don't plan a launch around promoted channels yet. Build the channel with links, forwards and regular posts, and treat promotion as something to check again later.

See also

Ads in Status, which work differently, are in our guide ads in WhatsApp Status.

Paid channel subscriptions: a select group of channels

Meta's 16 June 2025 post said people would be able to support a channel by subscribing to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee. WhatsApp's Channels Subscription Terms took effect the same day. They say:

How it bills
An automatically recurring monthly subscription. Each channel owner selects the monthly price, and the subscriber sees it at the time of purchase.
Who charges
The subscriber buys through a platform such as the Apple App Store or Google Play.
Cancelling
From the channel's Manage subscription page, reached by tapping the channel header, or through the app store.
Content
WhatsApp has no editorial control over, nor responsibility for, the content behind a channel subscription.

WhatsApp's article About adding subscriptions to your channel says channel subscriptions are rolling out gradually to a select group of channels, so the option may not be available to you yet.

Our reading

For most shops a channel is a way to reach customers, not something to charge for. If the option does reach your channel, the price is yours to set. WhatsApp's Help Center already says owners and admins are responsible for keeping channel content safe, relevant and age-appropriate.

What Meta says about ads and your chats

The WhatsApp Business ads page says personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads. Meta's 16 June 2025 newsroom post said Meta would never sell or share your phone number with advertisers, and that personal messages, calls and the groups you are in would not be used to decide the ads you see.

What this means for your shop

BitByteCore is a verified Meta Tech Provider (since 9 September 2026). This guide repeats WhatsApp's own Help Center and Meta's pages as we read them on 14 October 2026, and is not legal advice.

Our reading

Give the channel a name and description a customer would search for, and post on a steady rhythm so it has updates, reactions and forwards to show. Put the channel link and QR code where customers already look: the shop counter, receipts, your website and your Status. Paid reach through promoted channels was still marked coming soon when we read Meta's pages, so growth for now comes from those steps.

Questions

Why can't customers find my WhatsApp channel in the directory?

WhatsApp says the channel list is filtered by the viewer's country and language. If your channel doesn't show up for someone, they can search for its exact name, or you can send them the direct link.

How does WhatsApp decide which channels to recommend?

WhatsApp's Help Center lists the channel's updates, follower count, reactions and how often it posts, how similar it is to popular channels, and the viewer's general location, language, device and channel activity. Personal chats and calls aren't used.

Can I pay to promote my WhatsApp channel?

Meta described promoted channels, labeled "Ad", that boost a channel in the directory. When we read Meta's pages on 14 October 2026, the English ads page still marked them "Coming soon", and the Help Center article on promoted channels said the feature may not be available to you yet.

Can I charge for my channel's updates?

WhatsApp's Help Center says channel subscriptions are rolling out gradually to a select group of channels. Where they exist, people pay a recurring monthly subscription for exclusive updates, at a price the channel owner sets, bought through a platform such as the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Can followers see my phone number?

No. WhatsApp says followers won't see your WhatsApp profile name, picture or phone number.

Who is BitByteCore?

BitByteCore is a verified Meta Tech Provider (since 9 September 2026). This guide repeats WhatsApp's own Help Center and Meta's pages, and is not legal advice.

Sources

This guide describes WhatsApp's pages as we read them, and is not legal advice. More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

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