Messaging app Telegram is expanding the limit of its 'supergroup' feature from 1 000 to 5 000 people.
Supergroups are used by organisations and businesses to broadcast messages to all members, and by protesters to organise marches, among other uses.
Berlin-based Telegram, created two-and-a-half years ago, last month said it had 100 million monthly active users, with 15 billion messages sent daily.
New features added to the groups include pinned messages, allowing group admins to inform members of the most important messages, and making the supergroups public, enabling anybody to view the group's entire chat history.
Pinned messages are displayed at the top of the chat screen. All members will get a notification - even if they have muted ordinary messages from the group.
"To prevent potential spam issues, we're introducing powerful moderation tools for group admins. From now on, they can quickly delete all messages from a specific member, block and report them," said the Telegram team in a statement.
The app came under fire when it was reported it was the favoured messaging service used by terrorist group ISIS. This is because Telegram allows for end-to-end encrypted communication and a secure way to quickly share videos, texts and voice messages.
However, last year, the service said it was taking action to block the channels being used by the Islamic State.
Earlier this year, the Vatican announced the Pope and other members of the Vatican would use Telegram to broadcast recordings of gospel readings and commentary during the Christian period of Lent (the 40 days leading up to Easter).
The new supergroup features will roll out gradually, starting in Europe and America.
Telegram said the public supergroups option is not available in several countries in Asia yet, as it has "detected significant spam activity in the past". The team says it is working on anti-spam algorithms to make the feature available there.
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