On Thursday, Facebook announced a slew of new features for its Groups utility at its sixth Facebook Communities Summit. Groups are an incredibly popular part of the Facebook ecosystem. Thus, Meta has decided to bring in numerous new features, such as extended moderation options, Reels, and so much more.
As anticipated, Reels is by far the biggest change coming to your Facebook Groups. For those of you not consumed by the social media-saturated culture within which we currently find ourselves, Reels are a form of short video format intended to give TikTok a little bit of a run for its People’s Republic of China-scented money. Reels are recorded vertically, much like selfies. Reels aren’t new to the Facebook ecosystem on the whole, but users will now be able to view and share them within groups.
Facebook’s upper echelons are understandably excited about the addition of Reels. ‘Reels in Groups let you express your voice in your communities through creative and immersive videos. […] Imagine people in a makeup-obsessed group sharing their latest techniques and beauty finds with fellow members. Group admins and members can also add creative elements such as audio, text overlay and filters on top of their videos before sharing to bring their stories to life.’
Users will even be able to add visual effects, such as filters, to their reels, ensuring that the practice of only ever portraying the facade of a perfect life, flawless skin, and uncompromised mental health on social media remains untarnished and unaffected.
Reels aren’t the only new feature coming to Facebook Groups, though. Moderators will also now have an easier time regulating and verifying posts marked as fake news by ‘third-party fact-checkers’ with a new function called Admin Assist. There’s also a new points system to reward individuals actively participating in their community. In other words, you’ll be rewarded if you download Facebook, post to Facebook, and react and respond to posts on Facebook. That’s what ‘your community’ translates to in 2022.
In other news, Facebook may be watching your every move to build an addictive matrix of your likes and dislikes so that you never see content that you won’t interact with, but fake Facebook apps are even worse. Meta has issued a warning that fake Facebook apps are stealing users’ passwords.
