Facebook Adds Group Stories

Facebook is getting rid of Messenger Day and melding its stories functionality with the existing Facebook Stories feature, which is a clone of Snapchat Stories.

According to a news report in TechCrunch, with the overhaul, Messenger Day is now simply called Stories. The posts, which disappear in 24 hours, will now show up on both Facebook and Messenger, not one or the other. Viewing can also be synced so you won’t see a Story unveiled in one app if you have already viewed it on the other.

“We needed to make it easier for people to share Stories across different apps,” Facebook product manager Connor Hayes told TechCrunch. “Some people actually thought these experiences were already connected. We feel like it would make sense.” This move by Facebook to simplify Stories may be aimed at increasing the feature’s popularity with users. While Instagram is having huge success with Instagram Stories, Facebook’s feature hasn’t taken off on that scale.

According to the report, the cameras used in Facebook Stories and Messenger Stories will remain separate. The Facebook camera is focused on augmented reality, while Messenger’s is focused on adding captions and text.

Separately, Facebook said it is also rolling out Stories for Groups and Events, which will enable users to add posts that the rest of the group can view. Hayes told TechCrunch that this feature will give “multiple people the opportunity to tell a Story from multiple different angles.” Users will see Stories on their Event and Group pages, as well as at the top of their News Feeds, and will also be able to post while inside Events and Groups.

Facebook’s Groups are focused on specific topics, such as hobbies, professions and locations. With Stories, Groups can share content that may not be interesting to people in their general network, but will interest those in the group, reported TechCrunch.