San Francisco, Oct 12 (IANS): Social networking giant Facebook is rolling out the ability for members of Facebook Groups to launch group chats that, up to 250 members could join, the media reported.

"Facebook Groups" gives the 1.4 billion active users of the app a platform to collectively plan events, arrange in-person meetings, or have deeper discussions with their close ones or people of similar interests.

"Instead of immediately alerting you of every message in every thread, you'll first get a Facebook Groups notification inviting you to each new group chat you have to voluntarily join to receive further notifications," TechCrunch reported on Thursday.

This update that Facebook is planning on gradually rolling out, would also facilitate audio and video calls accommodating up to 50 members at once.

Users would have an option to browse through active chat threads, launch a new one, turn off notifications for message reactions or Messenger games and opt-in to be notified only if they have been "@mentioned" in the thread.

Group admins would have the authority to always shut down a group chat or limit their creation to only other admins, the report added.

Previously, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned platform allowed only up to 150 people on a Group chat at once.