Facebook to Shut Down Community chats Within Groups
Facebook is discontinuing the community chat feature within its groups.Group administrators are receiving notifications informing them of the upcoming change.
While the chats will be removed, Facebook assures administrators that groups themselves will remain active and serve as the primary hub for community interaction.Administrators will have the option to download chat logs from the Accounts Centre before the deactivation, though a specific date for the shutdown hasn’t been announced.
Launched in 2022 (and arriving in Spain in 2023),Facebook Communities aimed to provide a dedicated conversation space via Facebook Messenger,mirroring the functionality of WhatsApp Communities. These chats allowed administrators to initiate focused discussions, enabling members to respond directly without creating customary posts.
The feature offered organized “subconversations” through categorized chats, as well as dedicated spaces for event planning and administrator-only announcements. Initially, audio rooms for up to 30 participants were also available, but were removed in 2023.
Ultimately, the feature appears to have seen limited adoption. Users preferred to continue interacting directly within the Facebook groups themselves, rather than shifting conversations to Messenger. Facebook seems to recognize this preference and is streamlining the experience by focusing on the core group functionality within the main platform.