Facebook ‘Home’ refreshed to promote new content discovery, while the ‘Feeds’ tab will mainly feature posts from friends and family
Meta is making major changes to the way users interact with the content it presents in an effort to keep users interacting with the platform.
The platform separates different tabs so that it can deliver more targeted content to the user. For example, it names the primary tab – the first thing a user sees when they open the app – ‘Home’.
“Home” is therefore the new name of the tab that a user first sees when they open Facebook, and it will contain more content from accounts that users do not currently follow, including Reels and Stories.
Facebook feeds
Home, Feeds
This one, Meta announcedwill allow users to discover more content that may be of interest to users (ie personalized recommendations).
Facebook will suggest posts to users thanks to its machine learning ranking system. It also said it is investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver featured content.
Home will therefore become more of a discovery machine for users to find and follow new content and creators.
Of course, this change may not sit well with some quarters, so Facebook is launching what it calls the “Feeds” tab as it wants to stick with a more traditional Facebook experience.
Facebook feeds
The Feeds tab is a new way for users to find the most recent posts from friends, family, favorites, pages, and groups that users are already connected to. No ‘suggested for you’ posts will appear in the Feeds tab, but ads will appear.
Users can compile a favorites list of the friends and pages they care about most, and filter their content in this new tab.
Feeds on that tab are presented chronologically, with no personalized ranking,
“As of today, some people will see Feeds as a tab in their shortcut bar; on iOS this bar is at the bottom of the app and on Android at the top,” Meta said.
“We expect these updates to be rolled out globally in the coming week,” it reads. “The tabs in the shortcut bar change based on the parts of the app you use most. You can also personalize a tab and pin it to your shortcut bar, making the placement permanent.”
Roles tab
Meanwhile, Meta is also trying to revamp its app to compete with short video competitor TikTok.
In February, the company announced the product ‘Reels’, similar to TikTok’s short video format that has attracted many younger users.
There is no doubt that Meta wants to lure young people back to the Facebook platform with Facebook Reels.
Facebook roles
Meta is making these changes after a shock in May this year, when it was announced that Facebook Daily Users had fallen for the first time from the previous quarter.
The platform faces increasing competition from the likes of TikTok and YouTube that is attracting the attention of users (especially young people), as well as tight ad revenue and Apple’s privacy changes.
Meta therefore wants to ensure that user engagement with the Facebook platform and app continues to grow.
