Meta has started testing a new feature called Community Chats which will compete with Discord. Meta will soon allow users to start Community Chats in Messenger in the coming weeks, allowing them to create a Facebook Group, start chats and audio channels, and invite others to join their new group all within the app.
Similar to Discord, Community Chats will allow Facebook and Messenger users to connect with communities in real time in multiple formats, including text, audio and video.
- 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.
- Instead of 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.
- Admins 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.
- Admins will have moderation capabilities like blocking, muting or suspending group members, and removing members or messages
You can learn more about privacy and safety controls in Community Chats here.
