Facebook Testing Popup Posts That Mimic Chat Windows

You know the little popup window in the bottom of your screen on the desktop version of Facebook when you get a message from someone? Facebook is testing a new feature that would mean you’d see more of that window – only it’s not a message from a friend.

Facebook’s new feature would display certain posts on the bottom right of your screen, just like the current message window. There would be a text field below that lets you comment, plus an option to see the whole post or hide it entirely.

The goal of this feature, Facebook says, is to give users the chance to engage in conversation without leaving their news feed. “We are testing a new option that opens up a window when someone comments on your post, replies to your comment or tags you in a comment,” said a Facebook representative. “You can always hide the conversation or turn off notifications from within the drop down menu of the post.”

In short, the new feature makes it easier to participate in conversations where your friends are already interacting.

For now, Facebook said, this is a “small test.” Exact figures as to how many users are beta testing the feature or how they were selected haven’t been revealed. There’s also no news about when this feature is expected to become permanent. But a small test of a new feature is quite common for Facebook, since rolling our a new feature to nearly 2 billion users simultaneously could be quite problematic.

There’s a benefit for Facebook in this too. Like making money off a personal blog, the more people that see a post, the more ad dollars the company can bring in. And any time the site can get users interacting with content a little more, that’s a win as well.