WhatsApp and async messaging that respects notifications

WhatsApp is the lingua franca of community organizing in much of the country. Use it for individual messaging and opt-in groups. Respect everyone's notifications.

WhatsApp's strength is that it meets people where they already are. For many immigrant communities, Spanish-speaking communities, and intergenerational families, WhatsApp is the messaging app. Asking people to download Slack to volunteer is a barrier; asking them to join a WhatsApp group is not.

For project management, WhatsApp works well for: real-time coordination on the day of an event, opt-in updates to volunteers who do not check email, and 1:1 follow-up with members. It does not work well as the project home — files disappear in the chat scroll, and decisions are easily lost.

A workable rule of thumb: WhatsApp is the talking layer, the shared Drive is the writing layer, the calendar is the time layer. Each layer is in one place. When a decision happens in WhatsApp, the Owner moves it to the Decisions Log within 24 hours. Otherwise it did not happen.

For notifications: set group norms before the group is loud. "No messages between 8pm and 8am, weekends opt-in. Urgent goes to phone calls, not WhatsApp." Pin the norms to the group. New members read them in the first 24 hours. This is the difference between a group that helps the work and a group that haunts everyone's phone.