Facebook has a new mission. Rather than "make the world more open and connected," CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to "give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together." Grandiose marketing slogans and vague promises aside, what this means for you is a renewed focus on Facebook Groups.

Yes, Facebook Groups, the sleeper hit the company unveiled in 2010 and hasn't done much with since. Groups started as a way of sharing things with smaller circles of people in your life—your family, your book club, your kickball team—without cluttering your profile. Nowadays, though, you can find a group for almost anything. Zuckerberg claims there are 100 million people in "meaningful" groups that they consider vital to their daily lives. He wants to see that number hit 1 billion within five years.

To get there, Facebook plans to deploy—what else?—artificial intelligence to recommend groups you may find "meaningful." More importantly, the company added tools to schedule posts, screen and block members, and link groups. Together, these additions will help you find groups you might want to join, and to give the people leading those Groups greater control over their content and membership.

Zuckerberg hopes this proves his commitment to fostering vibrant, sustainable communities. Although Zuck's promise to bring the world closer together drew accolades from the adoring crowd at the recent Facebook Communities Summit in Chicago, there's reason to be skeptical. Groups, as it stands now, cannot build the communities Zuckerberg wants it to.

A Lack of Functionality

The renewed commitment to Groups comes as Facebook examines its role in society. Zuckerberg dreams of connecting the world, but in many ways his company has done the opposite by creating a network of bubbles and echo chambers populated by like-minded people. This troubles Zuckerberg, who outlined his vision for improving Facebook in February with his 5,726-word manifesto, Building Global Community. It argues that bringing people together online as well as offline strengthens physical communities.

To make that happen, though, Facebook Groups must change. At the least, group leaders need the ability to reach members without going through Facebook, because this is essential to forging meaningful relationships, says Gina Bianchini, the founder of Mighty Networks, a software company for creating niche social networks. Even with the update, getting basic info like members' email addresses or location requires contacting everyone in the group individually.

Even seemingly simple things are a hassle. "The frustrating part about Facebook is the inability to search through prior conversations—the search function never works—or download all posts, comments, and replies," says Wendy Kramer, an admin for Donor Sibling Registry, a community of families with children from sperm and egg donors. The organization's website boasts some 54,000 members and its Facebook Group provides a forum for news, conversations, and guidance to a few thousand people. "There is no way then to keep these historical and important conversations," she says.

The user interface presents another hurdle. “It's fine for broadcast content, like an activist group announcing upcoming actions or a restaurant posting pictures,” says James Grimmelmann, a law professor who studies social networks at Cornell University. “And it's fine for small tight-knit groups where people know each other and have low-intensity topical discussions now and then. It’s not built to handle anything in between.”

What makes this so frustrating is the fact community-fostering platforms like Reddit and Slack seem to have figured it out. They feature robust search tools, vast archives, browsable files, and the ability to go more than two layers deep in a comments thread.

All of which is to say, Groups still works much like it did when Facebook introduced it a decade ago—and without significant improvements, the company doesn't give people much incentive to use it as Zuckerberg envisions. He's done nothing to make the tool do anything more than a way of bringing families, book clubs, and kickball teams together.

Show Me the Money

Yes, Facebook added high-level analytics and real-time metrics like post counts and times of day when members are most engaged. Admins can now accept or reject membership requests in batches, banish bad actors, schedule posts, and link to like-minded groups. But Bianchini wants more meaningful functions, such as member subscriptions and native sponsorships and tickets—features that could generate revenue that group admins could use to strengthen and expand their communities.