Meta Revamps Facebook Content Feed

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 is separating out various tabs, so it can deliver more targetted content to the user. For example, it is naming the primary tab – the first thing a user sees when when they open the app – ‘Home.’

‘Home’ is therefore the new name of the tab a user will first see when they open Facebook, and it will contain more content from accounts that users do not currently follow, including Reels and Stories.

Home, Feeds

This, Meta announced, will allow users to discover more content that may be of interest to users (i.e. personalised 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 serve recommended content.

Home therefore will become more of a discovery engine for users to find and follow new content and creators.

Of course, this change may not go down well in some quarters, so Facebook is launching what it is calling the ‘Feeds’ tab, for wishing to stick with a more traditional Facebook experience.

The Feeds tab is a new way for users to find the most recent posts from friends, family, Favourites, Pages and groups, that users are already connected with. There will be no ‘suggested for you’ posts in the Feeds tab, but ads will still be included.

Users can curate a Favourites list of the friends and Pages they care about most, and filter their content in this new tab.

Feeds in that tab will be presented chronologically, without personalised ranking,

“Starting today, some people will see Feeds as a tab in their shortcut bar; on iOS, this bar is found at the bottom of the app, and on Android, it’s found at the top,” said Meta.

“We expect these updates to be rolled out globally over the next week,” it said. “The tabs in the shortcut bar change based on the parts of the app you’re using the most. You can also personalise and pin a tab in your shortcut bar, making its placement permanent.”

Reels Tab

Meanwhile Meta is also seeking to revamp its app to take the fight to short video competitor TikTok.

In February the firm announced the ‘Reels’ product, which is similar to TikTok’s short video format that has attracted many younger users.

There is no doubt that Meta is seeking to attract youngsters back to the Facebook platform with Facebook Reels.

Meta is making these changes after a shock in May this year, when it revealed that Facebook Daily Users had declined for the first time compared with the previous quarter.

The platform is battling increased competition from the likes of TikTok and YouTube grabbing user (particularly youth) attention, as well as a squeeze of advertising revenue, and Apple’s privacy changes.

Meta is therefore keen to ensure that user engagement with the Facebook platform and app continues to grow.