GROUP HUG, shouts Facebook. C'mere and let us squeeze you more

Facebook's strategy of breaking out its features into separate apps continued on Tuesday – with the launch of a Groups application for iOS and Android.

While more than half a billion Facebookers shunned the Messenger chat app that was spun out from the main FB app, the Mark Zuckerberg-run biz has soldiered on and built a new separate Groups app.

Facebook last month emitted a Rooms app for Apple iThings, which lets people chat anonymously with each other like IRC.

Zuck has previously talked up Facebook's plans to provide different services outside of its flagship mobile app. Previously, the Menlo Park-based firm has released Paper, Slingshot, and Mentions software, each of which bombed after a short-lived download frenzy in Apple's App Store.

Following that logic, your correspondent suspects that an Events app will follow soon.

The app strategy allows Facebook to slurp even more refined data on its 1.35 billion userbase worldwide. It also means that the free-content ad platform is competing for eyeballs from rival app makers, many of whom have developed their software using Facebook login credentials.

Perhaps some of those devs are now regretting their heavy reliance on the Facebook mothership, given its new and aggressive gameplay.

The Groups app is now available from the Apple App Store and Google Play. It'll be interesting to see how many Facebookers spurn this one. In contrast to Messenger, Groups will remain as a feature within the main app, Facebook swears. ®