In an attempt to revive engagement across Facebook, Meta is
launching a new Community Chat option for Messenger that it has created to facilitate
topic-based discussion groups. “We’re building Community Chats as a new way to
connect with people who share your interests,” says Meta. The social company is
currently testing the option with a limited number of users.
Community Chats are sort of a mix of Messenger and Facebook
Groups where users can connect with each other. More specifically, users can create
Facebook Groups, start chats and audio channels, and invite others to join
their groups from within Messenger via Community Chats.
Meta states, “Admins can now start a conversation about a
topic and get in-the-moment responses instead of waiting for people to comment
on a post. And, rather than navigating multiple topics in a single Messenger
group chat, the person who creates the Community Chat can organize chats into
categories so group members can easily find what’s most interesting to them.”
While the option is a great way of starting quicker interactions and discussions among users around different topics of interest, some users still might prefer keeping their Messenger and Facebook Groups separate for distinct purposes. However, considering that Facebook users still happen to be interested in Groups and direct messaging, perhaps merging the two functionalities could spark more engagement.
