Facebook Groups: The new standalone app for iOS and Android

The world’s biggest social media platform somehow just got a bit more social.

 

Facebook Groups is a new standalone app designed for easy communication and collaboration between chums, colleagues and contacts.

 

Available on iOS and Android, the app will help people “share faster and more easily with all the groups in their life”, Facebook said.

 

Until now the roughly 700m people who use Facebook groups every month have had mobile access to the function restricted to the main app. 

 

Currently completely ad free, the Facebook Groups homepage will feature icons leading to all of your groups, listed in order of how frequently you visit them. 

 

The app will also feature notifications and "discover" tabs, the latter recommending you certain groups based on those your friends are in, where you live and the pages you like. Facebook says it will be easy for users to adjust what notifications they receive.

 

 

Last week Facebook revealed the phenomenal success of its Messenger app which now has over 500m monthly users – almost the same number as WhatsApp users.

 

However, many users were not happy with the way Facebook effectively forced them to download Messenger by deleting the function from its main app.

 

So far there is no indication the same will be done for Facebook Groups.