Facebook Groups are being revamped to look like Discord

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Facebook Groups are about to get some big changes, and the new approach should be familiar to you. A new left-aligned sidebar and channels list for Groups is being tested by Meta. There is a purple accent color.

There is a new sidebar that lists your groups. Groups will be pinned so that they show up first on the list. A new menu will appear for individual groups. There are channels, Messenger conversations, and events on the menu.

Image: Meta

Group channels can be text chats, audio rooms, or feed rooms where people can post and comment in a way that is similar to what you see on your own feed. Text chat and audio rooms look similar.

A group dedicated to video games can be found in the gallery ofScreenshots from Meta, which includes all three of those channels. I don't know why that would be.

• 
• 
• 

As Meta starts to make Facebook feel more like TikTok, the test arrives. It makes sense that Meta is using the change to rethink how Facebook Groups work because the goal of the change is to have your feed recommend more content from accounts you don't follow. We will have to wait and see if it makes sense in practice.

Kate Cichy says that the changes will be made public.