Facebook Group Chats Can Have Up To 250 People Chatting

Your Facebook Messenger chats not chaotic enough for you? How about Facebook Group chats that may have more members than you have friends? That's the wonderful playground Facebook users will soon be able to enjoy once the social network giant fully rolls out its new Chat for Groups feature that will let members discuss any sub-topic under the sun. Thankfully, though, Facebook will be giving users a way out of potentially going insane.

Unlike Google's short-term memory problem with messaging apps and services, Facebook's problem is trying to keep its neatly delineated features from bleeding into each other while still feeling like one big happy family. With the new Chat tab on Facebook Groups, it's giving users a forum-like place to discuss sub-topics but all mostly done in real-time chat.

Chat for Groups can also get a bit crazy. Because while you're unlikely to talk to all 250 friends or more at once, a Facebook Group can easily exceed that number. And so this new Chat can accommodate that much in one group chat. And you can have as many of those as you can, or as the group admins allow, ranging from topics about planned meetups, tips, photo sharing, and maybe even some off-topic discussions.

If you already have difficulties keeping up with your non-Groups Messenger chats, you might be fearful for your sanity with Chat for Groups. Fortunately, you will only be notified for new messages only in chat's you're participating in. You can also set it so that you will only be notified if you have been @mentioned.

TechCrunch sees the new Chat for Groups as Facebook's counterbalance to the now heavily scrutinized and screened News Feed. Its users have started to flock to competing chat platforms, like Telegram, for niche interests. Massive group chats can then try to woo these users back into the fold and increase Facebook traffic again.