Latest Facebook Group Features 2022 (July, August And September)

It’s been three months since our last edition of the new Facebook group features sneak peek was released, and tbh, we’ve missed this!

We’ve never been more excited as we bring to you the brand new edition of all the latest features released in Facebook groups in July, August, and September 2022.

Please expect a lot of exciting new Facebook group features to look forward to:

• Five notable features that will help tighten group moderation
• Three excellent features that will increase Facebook group engagement
• Two great admin tools that will make managing your group a breeze
• Two new updates for improved user experience
• One amazing feature for group members
• One feature that will help monetize FB groups

Additionally, get your hands on one surprising update in public Facebook groups.

So, without further ado, let’s dive right into them!

Latest Facebook group features for July, August, and September 2022

⚔️ Tighten Facebook group moderation

1. Add group rules to announcements

Are you tired of reiterating your Facebook group rules to members over and over again?

What if we say you don’t need to do that anymore?!

Facebook now allows you to pin your Facebook group rules in the announcements aka featured section for all new members to see.

This would give clarity to all new and existing members on how they should interact with each other and help maintain a friendly and positive atmosphere in the community.

2. Ban and mute members during live session

No one likes unsolicited comments with offensive language, especially when hosting a live session.

Which is why Facebook now offers the ability to ban and mute members who’re creating a nuisance with their irrelevant comments while you’re live in your community.

You can see these options right below their comments.

3. Flag posts 

This new feature under ‘Admin Tools’ allows Facebook to automatically flag specific posts and comments in your Facebook group that go against community standards.

If a post or comment is flagged by Facebook, you will see two options:

a. Agree & Remove
b. Request Review

When you click ‘agree & remove’, your group will get a member violation. These violations are not that serious yet admins should make sure they are not repeated.

If you select ‘request to review’, it will be reviewed by the Facebook team, and a decision will be given later whether it’s a violation or not.

4. Matching comments on posts 

Facebook now tells you the total number of ‘matching comments’ aka duplicate comments on your group posts.

This way you can easily find and remove similar comments done on posts.

That being said, this feature is a boon when you want authentic engagement on all your brand campaign posts.

5. ‘Send’ option in pending posts

The new ‘send’ option in pending posts allows you to easily share the links of any pending posts with your co-admins and moderators across any channel and decide whether or not you should approve a particular post.

⚡Increase Facebook Group Engagement 

1. Write ‘Column’ 

Ever wanted to share a post about your favourite topic in your FB group but got worried the post would run too long?

Well, Facebook’s new feature – ‘Write Column’ keeps that worry at bay.

Columns are a new way to share in-depth knowledge with your community members and acquaint them with a particular topic.

You can find it in the ‘Create Post’ section itself.

You can easily add a cover image and links to your group columns. And, when you post them, they will be published as long-form articles.

2. Create ‘Channels’ in FB groups

Admins can now create channels to connect with their group members in a more casual setting within their communities and have more focused and spirited discussions.

There are three types of channels that group admins can create: chat, audio and feed.

Chat channels can be used for people to message, collaborate and talk about specific topics in real-time across both Facebook groups and messenger.

Key things to note: 

1. Once you create a chat, you must name it and decide if you want it to be invite-only.
2. When you join a chat, you’ll be able to see all the messages and receive notifications.
3. If a chat overflows with messages and you’re inactive, you may have to join it again.

Feed Channels are nothing but sub-groups that have been renamed by Facebook.

You can now create sub-groups within your Facebook group around specific topics of interests or pain points, and connect with members.

Sub-groups help keep your group organized and members’ feeds clean as they come across only those posts that matter to them and can take part in the discussions.

Audio Channels let admins and moderators jump in and out of audio conversations in real-time.

These audio channels are pretty similar to Discord and members can choose to turn on their videos at any time during the audio conversations.

One thing to note is that these audio channels can be joined by anyone on Facebook and they don’t expire unless deleted by any admin.

Ishan Vyas, the admin of a gaming Facebook group, shared how he is using the audio channels in his Facebook group.

“We tried an audio-channel which was open to all members and anyone could join to ask questions to our mods on why a certain post was declined or what are the rules for post approval.

Another audio-channel that we created was for selected members who had shown interest in discussing a specific topic on the eSports industry in India.”

3. Content explorer 

As the name suggests, this new Facebook group feature allows admins to explore relevant and high-quality posts from other public Facebook groups and share in their community.

While Facebook released this feature with the intent to boost conversations and group engagement, admins have not been liking it.

These comments from our Facebook group of power admins are enough evidence.

One way to go about this is – Take inspiration from the posts you come across via the content explorer and then create original posts around the same for your community.

✅ New Admin Tools 

1. Admin checklist 

The new ‘Admin checklist’ under settings helps admins customize their groups to attract more people.

It lays down a couple of tasks (divided into different categories) that will help admins make a great first impression on community members, get people talking, and help their group stand out.

These tasks include: invite members, add a cover photo,  create a new post, and add a group description, add shortcuts, choose signature colours for your group and more.

2. Community roles center

We are calling all community managers to try out this excellent new feature.

Under ‘community roles center’, Facebook lists down different agendas that can help grow your community every week.

Check out the agendas below.

🙌🏻 Improved user experience 

1. New layout for groups on laptop / desktop  

Facebook rolled out a new layout for groups and here’s how Facebook groups appear on laptop / desktop.

All the options are available on a single screen, and accessing the community has never been easier.

Under the ‘Browse’ section, you get three options: Community home, Rooms, and Events.

And all admin tools are available under ‘Manage’.

2. Sort posts easily 

The new ‘sort’ feature allows you to sort the posts as per your preference.

Whether you want to see posts based on the recent activity or as per relevance, this feature updates the group’s feed as per your requirement.

😍 New feature for group members 

1. Chat with admins and moderators in one click 

You can now create a direct chat on Facebook messenger if you wish to connect with your group admins and moderators.

Thanks to the new ‘Chat with admins’ button available under Tool Shortcuts in Facebook groups.

This feature helps group members connect with admins and moderators and chat with them in real-time.

They can share their issues and concerns and seek suggestions for any problems they might be facing.

However, there’s one drawback, i.e. any member can join the chat and it might get difficult for admins and moderators to communicate with so many members at the same time.

💰Monetize your FB group 

1. Subscriptions

Monetising your community has never been this easy for Facebook group admins.

Facebook recently announced that group admins can set up additional private sub-groups in their groups with paid access.

Simply put, you can encourage members to subscribe and be a part of your sub-groups in exchange for some great content like e-books, courses, tutorials, or more.

⚡New Update 

1. Public group members are now “Followers”

Yes, you read that right!

Facebook recently announced that members of public Facebook groups will now be called ‘Followers’.

It means users will no longer ‘join’ a public group. Instead, they will ‘follow’ it.

That’s all about the latest Facebook group features for July, August and September 2022. 🙌🏻

Now go ahead and make the most of these new and exciting features!

Please don’t worry if you haven’t seen them in your Facebook groups yet. Facebook will roll them out sooner or later.

Till then, you can share your thoughts in our Facebook group, where thousands of Facebook group admins discuss this and more about growing, engaging, and monetizing their Facebook groups.🙂

Simran Grover

Creating value in the lives of others with my content, little by little.✨

Working at Convosight, I do more than just wrangle commas. I’m passionate about innovating new ways to create super valuable and actionable content about Communities and Community Marketing at large, and sharing it with the right audience.
I also happen to manage a global community of power admins on Facebook, and that’s where most of my learnings come from.

Do check out my latest blogs and feel free to share them! 💛