Facebook group chat
At the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a really interesting announcement about upcoming enhancements to Facebook’s chat capabilities. In particular, he’s announced what’s called Group Chat.
Facebook Group Chat is a multi-person feature which is inspired by the functionality already inside the Facebook Groups chat area. The functionality is rolling out progressively as of now so it should be interesting to see what the take up on this type of chat functionality is. This will also be incorporated into the design of the new Facebook chat.
Personally, I rarely use the chat feature on Facebook. I find that my friends aren’t online when I am or it’s just as quick for me to call them to ask them the same question. In terms of users, it would be interesting to see if this type of enhancement generates more interest in the chat features. It should be noted though that Facebook did announce also that more than 50% of users of Facebook are active in Facebook Groups, so perhaps the enhancements to chat will receive a warm reception?
The thought process behind the upgrades seems as though it is to make Group Chat more accessible to all users and allow more ad-hoc conversations and interactions to take place.
In a business environment, with Facebook becoming more and more prominent in daily operations the introduction of Group Chat may just be what we’ve all been waiting for. A quick and easy way to chat to an industry group, organise an event, even recruit new staff. Also, with the pending release of the Skype powered video chat feature, I think this is a massive solidification of Facebook’s place in any digital or social media strategy.
What are your thoughts on Facebook Group Chat, will you use it?
Yours in Facebook,
Trish
