Meta has announced (opens in new tab) that it’s currently working on a suite of new features for Facebook Groups which are intended to bring communities closer together, and some of them will be very familiar to users of the popular voice, video, and text chat app Discord.
According to the announcement, admins will soon have the ability to create channels within their groups which allow them to interact in “smaller, more casual settings where they can have deeper discussions on common interests or organize their communities around topics in different formats.”
This will include new Discord-style community audio channels, which will allow admins and group members to “casually jump in and out of audio conversations in real time,” along with regular text-based chat channels for those who are shy on the mic.
In addition to the real-time audio and chat channels, Facebook Groups will also offer community feed channels, letting users interact and post comments in admin-approved topics in their own time.
A new and improved sidebar will spearhead the revamp, giving users an easier way to access their groups, which will now be listed in the order of their latest activity, such as “new posts or chats you haven’t yet seen.”
Users will also be able to pin their favorite groups to the top of the sidebar for quick access, and groups themselves will become more organized thanks to a new menu which will allow members to keep up to date with events, shops and the topics they’re most interested in.
Right now, Meta’s revamp of Facebook Groups is merely in the testing phase, however, we expect it to roll out to all users in the coming months.
