The reason why WhatsApp groups admit a maximum of 256 participants
Although it is the most used messaging app on planet Earth, WhatsApp always keeps a strange secret that not everyone knows. For example, did you know it wasn't even a messaging app at first? , Or that the maximum number of participants in a group has a technical explanation? .
We have already told you about the first case, but so far we have not explained why WhatsApp groups admit "only" 256 people. Neither 255 nor 257. And the truth is that, while competitors like Telegram continue to increase that number to unsuspected limits - today there are already 200 people who can be part of a Telegram group, and on the rise - WhatsApp remains true to this curious and technical figure released in 000.
WhatsApp groups only support 256 people, but there's a reason
To understand why WhatsApp, at the time, had decided to choose this very precise figure as the maximum number of members that can be added to a group, it is necessary to take into account some of the basic computer science fundamentals, such as binary system. it uses 2 digits to be represented ?? 0 and 1 ??.
As the user dat_sylveon on Reddit, WhatsApp stores each user in a group with a unique ID. Therefore, taking into account that 256 is the maximum number of participants, and that the binary system uses 2 digits, it can be deduced that each unique user identifier uses 8 bits, since 2 increased to 8 equals 256, which is the maximum number of unique identifiers that can be obtained.
The truth is that 256 is one of the most important numbers in computing, because this is the largest number of elements that can be represented with a single byte ?? eight bits, or what in the binary system would be "eight some" -. For example, 256 is the maximum number of colors that can be found in a GIF, or the number of characters in the ASCII language.
WhatsApp could easily assign unique identifiers composed of a greater number of bits. It is possible that over time, 2 bytes will be allocated instead of 1 as before, which would translate into a maximum number of participants of more than 65 people per group, a figure which today would be unnecessary to the vast majority of platform users.
We don't know if WhatsApp will increase this limit sooner or later., and if so, up to what maximum number of participants. But at least we already know why, after increasing the limit for the first time in groups, 256 was the number chosen by the company.
Related subjects: WhatsApp
