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Facebook to shut down its group stories feature next week

The social network plans to start sunsetting the feature on Sept. 26.

Queenie Wong Former Senior Writer
Queenie Wong was a senior writer for CNET News, focusing on social media companies including Facebook's parent company Meta, Twitter and TikTok. Before joining CNET, she worked for The Mercury News in San Jose and the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. A native of Southern California, she took her first journalism class in middle school.
Expertise I've been writing about social media since 2015 but have previously covered politics, crime and education. I also have a degree in studio art. Credentials
  • 2022 Eddie award for consumer analysis
Queenie Wong
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Facebook has been trying to get more users to join the social network's groups. 

Angela Lang/CNET

Facebook is killing a feature that allows administrators and members who're part of the social network's groups to post videos and photos that vanish within 24 hours, the company said on Friday. 

The feature, called group stories, has been available globally since December. The company plans to start sunsetting group stories on Sept. 26 at 9 a.m. PT. Existing group stories will be deleted and users won't be able to post any new ones. Facebook groups are an online space where users gather and chat about common interests. 

Facebook declined to say how many people used the group stories feature that it's discontinuing. In a statement, the social network suggested users didn't find it useful.

"We're sunsetting group stories because we want to make sure that features in groups enable people to connect in fun and useful ways, and we're always looking at ways to improve the overall experience for communities on Facebook," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement.

Facebook users will still be able to post ephemeral content through their personal profiles. 

More than 1.4 billion people on Facebook use groups every month. 

Social media industry commentator Matt Navarra spotted this upcoming change earlier on Friday.