iWorld
Facebook Groups crosses 80 mn monthly users in India
MUMBAI: Groups are spaces where you can share things with people who care about them the most. With Groups, we make it easy for you to build a space for important groups of people in your life—your family, your soccer team, your book club and bring like-minded people together to learn, support or rally around a common bond or interest. All you have to do to get started is to create a group, add friends and start sharing. Members can comment and like posts, so it’s easy to discuss anything with just the people you want. Whether it’s a road trip, a bachelor party, or your concert bucket list, groups make it easy to coordinate with friends near and far and lets you communicate in one searchable space.
Today, more than 1 billion people use Facebook Groups every month and we’ve seen it grow because people use Groups in many different ways. Last year, people in tens of millions of Facebook Groups left more than 100 billion comments in Groups and there were more than 250 billion likes on Group posts. In India, over 80M people use Groups each month to stay in touch with family, collaborate on projects, plan trips and offer support to friends. We work to keep Groups the best way for people to communicate, collaborate, and plan.
Over the past year we’ve invested a lot on this product. We recently introduced Groups Discover, a new feature where you can browse groups by category and get recommendations based on your friends, location and interests. Discover offers 25 different categories such as parenting, sports, food, buy & sell, networking, animals & pets, hobby & leisure, support & comfort and travel. Each topic page highlights the top suggested Groups based on popularity and who you may already know that’s a member. Additionally, we have been working to tweak the Groups experience to make it easier for people to do the things in Groups that they want. For example:
• You now have the ability to reply directly to specific comments on a post in Groups so people can navigate comments more easily and have deeper conversations.
• You can more easily drag and drop-in files if you’d like to share more information within your group.
• When you create a new group, we suggest different types of groups you might be building in order to help streamline the process for you.
Groups is continuing to grow, and continues to be a huge priority for us. We’ve seen it become so big because it’s a flexible tool that helps people share and communicate in a very diverse range of ways. Groups is being used in really interesting and meaningful ways – from a group of women in India coming together to crochet the world’s largest blanket to women of Indian heritage in the US connecting to share their children’s lunchbox recipes! Give it a try and create a few groups of your own at http://www.facebook.com/groups.
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
