Facebook Groups Now Has Its Own App, But Users Don’t Have To Download It

The appification of Facebook continued today with the launch of a separate app for Facebook Groups.

The free app is available today worldwide for both Android and iOS, and lets users interact with groups they’re already in, as well as create new groups and get recommendations for groups they might be interested in.

Facebook says it has about 700 million Groups users, which is about half of the entire Facebook population. The reaction from those users will be interesting to watch. Facebook launched a separate app for its Messenger service a few years ago, and then provoked some angry responses earlier this year when it made the Messenger app mandatory and removed the feature from the main Facebook app.

For the moment, at least, Facebook is saying the right things about the new Groups app: Groups users don’t have to use the app, and the Groups product will still be part of the main Facebook app and Facebook.com. Facebook says it plans to continue improving those versions of Groups, too.