Almost all of the biggest social networking sites and most popular messaging apps all have a group chat/chat room function. With SMS, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Apple’s iMessages, and Google’s Hangouts all already allowing users to create group conversations, this was only a natural next step for Facebook if the company wants to remain competitive in the messaging war.
Supposedly this feature is codenamed, “Host Chat” and it allows users to create their own AOL-reminiscent chat rooms that their friends can join without an invitation. The purpose would be to get more users to spend more time on Facebook while using their messaging system as a primary way of staying in touch with their friends.
How will this feature work? Next to Update Status, Add Photos/Video, there will be a new option called ‘Host Chat.’ Clicking on ‘Host Chat’ will allow the user to name their chat room, add specific friends/users to it, and even set privacy restrictions in case they don’t want certain people just ‘jumping in’ to their conversations.
No word yet on when or if this feature will make it to the next update of Facebook. It is still being tested on a small percentage of Facebook users.
