Jul 7, 2011 12:32 GMT  ·  By

Along with the touted Skype integration that powers Facebook video calls, the social network revealed a couple of other new features and changes related to Facebook chat. One feature, in particular, will appeal to those that hang out with friends on Facebook, group chat.

While there were ways of having almost real-time conversations with several people at a time, group chat is built right into the chat feature.

Now, when you start a conversation, you will have the option of adding more people to it, enabling all of you to have fun or plan the next outing.

"We're also launching multi-person chat, which is one of our most requested features," Facebook's Philip Su wrote.

"Now when your friends can't figure out what movie to see, you can just add them to a chat and decide together. To include more friends in your conversation, simply select Add Friends to Chat," he explained.

If you've used Facebook Groups, and 50 percent of users have, according to Facebook, then the feature may be familiar to you, since you can already have conversations with all of the members of a group.

The feature is rolling out to everyone, but you may not be able to access it just yet.

Unlike the video call feature, you can't enable it by yourself, so you'll have to wait until Facebook enables the feature for you.

Along with all of the improvements to the chat feature, Facebook also introduced a new chat sidebar that lists the people you chat with the most. This makes it easy to start a conversation with a friend or see if he or she is online.

"The new chat design includes a sidebar that lists the people you message most. Now it's easier to find your friends and start a conversation. The sidebar adjusts with the size of your browser window, and it automatically appears when the window is wide enough," Facebook explained.

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Group chat is now available in Facebook
The new friends list for Facebook Chat
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