Facebook Groups is letting users create 250-person chats — and it might not be as bad as it sounds.
The chats will center around Facebook Groups’ sub-topics and will enable audio and video calls of up to 50 people.
There’s no need to worry about a slew of chat notifications. Facebook sends an initial invitation letting group members know that a chat is starting and members have to manually join the discussion to receive further notifications.
The company is also letting group administrators control how chats are created and have the ultimate control to delete a chat. Facebook users can also turn off notifications for chats or opt to only be notified when they are mentioned.
Facebook has been looking for more ways to integrate Messenger and Groups. Other apps like Instagram and WhatsApp have found more ways to upgrade their chat features; however, Facebook’s is unique in offering sub-topics to its groups. iPhones also joined the wave of group connectivity when it began offering group Facetime of up to 32 people.
The move to 250-person chats comes after Facebook reported a data breach which impacted nearly 50 million users in September and the recent release of Portal, Facebook’s version of Amazon Echo.
