by shahid hussain
Meta is testing two new features for Facebook Groups with group chat and voice calls, as per a report by How To Geek. The social media company is testing a new sidebar on the left side of smartphone apps, similar to the layout of Discord, Slack and other apps that allow group-based messaging.
Alongwith the new sidebar, you can also ‘pin’ the groups to the top of the list, a feature WhatsApp users may be well aware of too. In Groups, you can now create chat channels and voice channels in addition to the regular feed. Group members can join and leave the voice channels at any time, very similar to Discord and Telegram. Text-based chats can be accessed in both Facebook Groups and Facebook Messenger.
Newer cloud-based messaging apps like Telegram and Discord have seen a massive jump in popularity over the years. Also, due to multiple leaks of user data that have happened over the years, Facebook’s reputation as a trustworthy social platform has taken a hit. Meta owns WhatsApp but since many users go to Messenger and Groups sparingly these days on account of the newer messaging apps, the company is trying to revitalise its established services that are suffering from competition.
