When a competing service becomes a hit, Facebook doesn’t hesitate to look to it for muscle-building inspiration. son own department. For example, watching the success of Stories on Snapchat, the network social decided to copy the format. And Facebook is now ready to draw inspiration from some elements of TikTok. In addition, this week the network social announce test new interface for groups. And if you’ve used the Discord messaging service before, you’ll be very familiar with this new interface and accompanying features!
When Facebook gets inspired by the Discord interface
First, in terms of navigation, Facebook groups will have a sidebar on the left, which works pretty much the same as Discord. “It lists your groups and recent activity in them, such as new posts or topics you haven’t seen yet. You can also pin your favorite groups to show up first, discover new groups, or even create your own. For example, if you need quick access to the latest recipes from your cooking group, you can now pin it to the top, find related groups, and be inspired to create your own.” — Facebook ad. And that is not all. To make group interactions more organized, admins will have the ability to create channels (or subgroups, if you prefer). He will possible to create messaging channels (Messenger) or post threads (which you can comment on) topics that will appear in the sidebar. Thematic channels for discussion via Message exchange. © Facebook And Facebook groups can even have an audio space where users can interact in real time. Facebook groups will also be able to have audio channels. © Facebook “A feature that allows administrators and members to join and leave audio conversations in real time. If you’d like to hear best practices from other grillers in your BBQ group, there can be an audio channel available on your Facebook group and Messenger,” explains Facebook.
Discord, the desired platform?
Discord, whose interface and way of organizing discussions resembles Slack, is very popular among gaming communities. In 2021, there were rumors about possible acquisition of this platform by Microsoft. At the time, its value was estimated at $10 billion. However, Discord is reportedly not involved in the negotiations. From son side it possible that Meta has noticed that some users are using its social media less in favor of Discord. Moreover, it should be noted that in WhatsApp, the group also decided to draw inspiration from this application.
Whatsapp also offers something similar for organizing discussions in communities.
In April, WhatsApp introduced a “communities” feature that allows groups of people to organize their conversations in themed channels like Slack or Discord. “Whatsapp Communities will bring different groups together under a single structure. In this way, members will be able to receive announcements sent to the wider community, as well as interact in small groups created around specific areas of interest. Communities will also offer powerful new tools for administrators, including the ability to send announcements to all community members and control which groups can be added to them.
