For quite some time now, Meta has required Facebook users to post under their real names (with a few exceptions), but today the company at least introduced new options for Facebook Groups, now you can use nickname for group comments. Members of Facebook Groups can now use a virtual private chat to enable temporary conversations in a pseudo-messaging application without automatically becoming friends.
You can give yourself a custom nickname in the same toggle that allows you to make an anonymous post, Meta says. Nicknames have to be approved by a group’s administrators, and sometimes individually approved, but once you make the switch, you’re free to post under your real name or nickname as much as you want.
The only other thing to keep in mind is that the nickname must comply with Meta’s current Community Standards and Terms of Service. As you choose your new nickname, you can also select from an array of custom avatars that appear to be primarily photos of adorable animals wearing sunglasses.
Groups are among the features within Facebook that Meta has worked to tweak over the past few years as part of its efforts to lure people back. In 2024, the company unveiled a tab that surfaced local events posted in Facebook groups.
More recently, it introduced tools for admins to convert private groups into public ones to attract new members. No single change can make Facebook the focal point of young people’s lives the way it was back in the early 2000s, but allowing people to use what is essentially a username would at least give infrequent Facebook users and lurkers a kick to try new groups and post more openly.
