Facebook testing feature to show public group conversations on news feed

Facebook on Thursday said it will start testing a new feature to allow users discover conversations in 'public groups' on their news feed.

The social media giant is also introducing new tools to help group administrators moderate posts in the groups more efficiently.

"More than 1.8 billion people use Groups every month, and there are tens of millions of active communities on Facebook where people come together to talk about their interests, learn new things, be entertained and make connections," Facebook said in a blogpost.

It added that the company has also "made changes to reduce harmful content and misinformation".

To help more people find and connect with communities, the social media platform is going to start testing new ways for people to discover conversations in public groups on and off Facebook, it said.

It added that users may see 'Related Discussions in News Feed' when someone posts a link or re-share a post on Facebook.

"This will let you dive deeper and see what other groups are saying about the same content," it said.

In the Groups tab, users can see posts from public groups related to their interests as well as popular posts across public groups, recommended to them.

"You may start to see conversations from public groups more outside of the Facebook app, like when you're searching the web," the blog said.

Facebook said users can then participate in the conversation without joining the group, as long as the community allows it.

"Admins still have control over their group settings, like who can post and comment without approval, and we'll show people the group rules before they post so community culture stays strong. The new Admin Assist feature also makes it easy to limit specific types of posts," it said.

Facebook said when it starts to test this in the coming months, admins will have the option to include their groups in this new public groups experience.

"During the opt-in process, you'll be able to turn on post-approvals for your group, which will apply to everyone, including new members and non-members," it added.

Noting that there are over 70 million people involved in building and running Facebook groups active in the past month, Facebook said its new tools will help administrators manage their groups more efficiently.

They can now decline posts with certain keywords or from people who haven't been in the group very long or whose posts have been reported in the past.

They can also organise content by topic with hashtags and pin a topic to the top of the group to highlight it for everyone.