Facebook Launches Standalone Groups App | Hacker News Reader

Facebook Launches Standalone Groups App

techcrunch.com

71 pointsrobhodge23 comments

Called it! Check out my blog post from 2 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8613878

I might try this app out. I recently turned my Facebook off due to privacy concerns. However I found I was missing out on really important stuff like family reunions, engagements, new baby pictures.

I currently browse facebook only in a private tab, mostly as a response to frictionless sharing.

If I could only consume the part of facebook that I need to stay in touch with family that would be great.

I'm in a similar boat. The only reason why I still have a Facebook account is because a few groups that I belong to like to organize their events using Facebook Groups. It's frustrating but cancelling my account would mean missing out on a lot of things. Unfortunately, I don't see Facebook allowing you to access this without signing up for all of Facebook.

Some privacy concerns might stay. The data for example, is still at FB.

Hm what's wrong with making phone calls, writing emails / letter to do that? Send them baby pictures by post for christmas or something.

Extra clicks and time needed to do it comes into consideration.

Usually about now is when someone claims, "If they were your real friend they would put forth the effort.", but by that logic, if you were their real friend you would put in the effort in to make yourself easier to share with.

Always thought facebook can challenge meetup.com, will wait to see if like minded groups will use this with referal only entry

I find Facebook lists to be a lot more convenient for "micro-sharing". The lists are completely on your end, and none of your friends know what list they are on. It just makes it so that everything from you is targeted to them .

Given the amount of vitriol surrounding Facebook messenger as a separate app, I'll be interested to see how users respond to this new head that has spawned on the Facebook app hydra. Looks like a direct competitor to Groupme and Whatsapp groups, and one that could've (should've?) been implemented within the messenger app rather than building out a completely separate application for chats that probably already live inside messenger.

Also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8625259.

I really appreciate FB splitting off their features into products. I use the Chat app a lot more than I was expecting. I seldom view the "news feed" which is mostly garbage for me. I look forward to an "Event planning" and calendar integration...

Why can't they just make all the same features that are on the main web site available in the main app? I use groups a whole lot but I see no need for a separate app... that just means more context switching and will most likely lead to app jumping like main vs messenger does now :/

For one not-minor advantage, you get context to badging and push notifications. I have the notifications from the Facebook app itself completely disabled because it's a flood of non-urgent interrupts—but I rely on notifications on the Facebook Messenger app, and would probably leave notifications enabled on Facebook Groups if I had a group I participated heavily in. It'd be sort of like Pair, or Slack (but for non-company groups), both of which are disruptive sub-markets that are eating Facebook's lunch.

edited: Sorry I confused Groups and Rooms! ignore this.

------------------------------------------------

A couple of UX decisions in the Rooms app are interesting.

It uses QR Codes to provide access to a Room. You take a screenshot of the QR code, the Rooms app scans your camera roll to find new rooms to give you access to.

The typical account creation process is side-stepped. You create an account after you use the app. The account is initially based on your device, so it's only needed if you switch devices or use multiple devices.

That's rooms, not groups.

It makes it difficult to get more users into a room, and [seems to] pander for mobile interaction.

Rooms is a separate app, also made by Facebook, but (AFAIK) unrelated to the Groups app which is the subject of the article.

So this app wants access to all your photos, ostensibly to make joining groups easier? That doesn't make me particularly excited about installing it.

What do you think your biggest use cases will be for the new Facebook Groups app?

I'm curious, because in the past, Facebook Groups seemed to be forums basically.

I've seen groups used quite extensively in Education. It's how university students in the same class collaborate on assignments. They don't need to be friends to work together, so it's super convenient with document sharing etc.

I have friend groups as well but we mostly moved to FB group chat or Slack.

I have groups for:

-My football tipping group

-My D&D group

-My board games group

-A group of my closeish (25 members) friends used to organise events and general chit chat which we aren't necessarily comfortable sharing with all of Facebook.

For me, the valuable features of Facebook are now groups and events, everything else is just junk.

I wonder what you'd think of an app dedicated solely to real-life groups and events:

http://qbixstaging.com/Groups

Try it out and let me know your feedback. Planning to release it soon.

Is the app in the iTunes store yet?

Try this link: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id931735837

Reply on news.ycombinator.com