By Modupe Gbadeyanka
In the coming weeks, Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, will test-run a new feature known as Community Chats, on its Messenger and Facebook.
The founder of the company, Mr Mark Zuckerberg, confirmed this development in a message, noting that the feature allows users to engage themselves in real-time.
“We will begin testing the ability for people to start Community Chats in Messenger in the coming weeks, allowing people to create a Facebook Group, start chats and audio channels, and invite others to join their new group all within the app.
“We’ll also be expanding Community Chats to even more Facebook Groups,” Mr Zuckerberg announced in the message.
How it works
Admins can choose from several options to help their communities connect. They can start a chat for group members around a specific topic, an event chat for an outing or meetup, a view-only broadcast chat for admins to announce group-wide updates and an admin-only chat to collaborate with admins and moderators.
Admins can also create audio channels so group members can share live commentary or receive real-time support. Participants also have the option to enable video once they’re in the audio channel.
For example, the admin of a Facebook Group for chemistry students could create audio channels for study groups during finals season, and participants can turn on video for live tutoring.
Community Chats are only accessible to members of a group. To learn more about how to use Community Chats, check out the Facebook Community Blog.
Explaining the rationale behind Community Chats, Meta said the feature lets people connect more deeply with communities in real time around the topics they care about in multiple formats, including text, audio and video.
The experience seamlessly blends Messenger and Facebook Groups to allow people to connect when, where and how they want.
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.
For example, a band’s fan group could have a “Breaking News” category with chats dedicated to new album drops, tour dates and group activities.
“We’re committed to building messaging experiences that help people connect with their communities, friends and families.
“As Community Chats rolls out to more people and groups around the world, we’ll continue exploring new features and capabilities to make it easier to connect with one another,” Mr Zuckerberg stated.
