Glossary

Publish to Groups

publish_to_groups was a Meta Graph API permission that let third-party apps post to Facebook groups until Meta removed it in April 2024.

publish_to_groups was the OAuth permission that cloud tools like Buffer and Hootsuite used to schedule posts into member groups. Meta revoked it for typical marketing apps in April 2024.

What changed

Cloud schedulers can still post to Facebook Pages, and they do that well. They can no longer post to groups you joined as a member. Group marketers moved to browser-session posting tools like MaherPost.

Why marketers care

If your plan still assumes publish_to_groups works, your group posts are quietly going nowhere. Page posts and group posts are different channels. Before renewing an annual contract on an older scheduler, ask the vendor to show you a live post going into a member group, not a Page.

Common mistakes

Buying “API group posting” without checking the OAuth scopes
Confusing Page publishing permissions with member group access
Leaving old queues in place after Buffer and Hootsuite dropped group posting
Believing a social post about “API access restored” without checking Meta’s documentation

Example in practice

An agency still has Buffer group queues set up for twelve clients. The posts show as scheduled but never appear in the member groups, and support confirms that publishing to member groups through the API is not available for their app. They move to MaherPost with spintax, warmup mode, and delivery logs. Volume is lower in the first week. By the second, the logs show posts landing in real groups, and the clients who had been asking why nothing was visible now get per-group proof.

In MaherPost

MaherPost never relied on publish_to_groups. Campaigns to joined groups run through the chrome extension poster in your browser session, with the composer, delays, health scoring, and logs designed around that. Onboarding for teams coming from API tools starts with bundles, spintax, and reading the logs.

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