Continuing its trend of breaking off core features into their own specialized apps, Facebook Inc. has announced the launch of Facebook Groups.

The new app is designed to make it easier for people to keep up with their customized “groups,” which allow users to create small communities within Facebook that are separate from their news feeds.

For example, students can form a Facebook group with their classmates to discuss upcoming tests or plan out group projects. There are also larger public groups that can be joined for people interested in talking about specific hobbies, television shows, or just about anything.

The app is the fifth release from the Facebook Creative Labs project, which allows internal teams within Facebook to work on new products that diverge from the core Facebook app and website.

This has been a busy year for Facebook apps, with several new apps being released such chat-centric Rooms and the Snapchat-like Slingshot. There were also significant and controversial changes made to the popular Facebook Messenger app, making the inbox entirely separate from the Facebook app for mobile users.

Facebook seems to have learned from the backlash surrounding the changes to Facebook Messenger, which forced users to install the app if they wanted to continue sending Facebook messages.

Unlike Facebook Messenger, there are currently no plans to force people to use Facebook Groups by removing that functionality from the core Facebook app. In the blog post announcing the app, Product Manager Shirley Sun wrote:

You can still use Facebook Groups in the main Facebook app and on desktop, and over time we’ll continue to make those experiences faster and better, too.

How it works

When you open the Facebook Groups app, it displays all of the groups you have joined, placing your most used groups at the top.

The app allows you to easily create new groups and offers a Discover feature, which lists groups you might want to join based on your friend list, your location, and what pages you have liked.

There is also a notifications tab that makes it easier to control what notifications are shown to reduce clutter from very active groups.

Availability

Facebook Groups is available on iOS and Android. There has been no mention yet of a Windows version.