Meta Platforms Inc. has announced the launch of its Groups Discover feature in India. This new feature allows users to browse through groups categorized into 25 different topics such as parenting, sports, food, buy and sell, and many more. Each topic page highlights the top suggested groups based on popularity and group members that users might already know.
The Groups Discover tool is designed to recommend groups to users based on their location, interests, or existing connections with group members. This feature is currently available as an update for both iOS and Android apps and is already accessible on the website. After the US and UK, India is the third country where Facebook has introduced this new tool. Notably, the feature is not yet available on the Facebook Groups app.
In addition to the Groups Discover feature, Facebook has enhanced its Groups with new functionalities. These include the ability for users to reply to specific comments directly and drag-and-drop files for easy attachment. As of now, over 1 billion people use Facebook Groups every month, with more than 80 million people using them in India alone.
Adit Vaidya, global product manager for Facebook Groups, stated that the feature is currently ad-free, and the company has no plans to monetize it in the near future. At a media conference in New Delhi, Facebook emphasized the role of Groups Discover in fostering connections among diverse groups of women in the country. Two inspiring stories of women’s groups were shared, such as a group of women who came together to crochet the world’s largest blanket.
While recent reports indicate that only 24% of Facebook users in India are female, the social network’s user base in the country reached 125 million last year, making India Facebook’s second-largest market globally. The Groups Discover feature’s launch in India is expected to further empower and engage diverse communities, particularly women, in the country.
