Facebook announced a series of updates to its platform yesterday, many of which aim to push users outside their social bubble of friends and family. New features include new tabs and features to expose users to more diverse and localized content.
Among the main innovations, Facebook is introducing a new “Local” tab in 10 US citiesincluding New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. This will collect content from other sections such as Marketplace, local groups and events, in a sort of Facebook version of Nextdoor. The company will also test an “Explore” tab, similar to Instagram’s feature of the same name, with content customized to the user’s interests.
Facebook tries to imitate TikTok with a hyper-personalized video feed.
Another significant innovation is a full-screen video feed reminiscent of the “For You” page of TikTok, combining short, long and live videos. Facebook says young adults on the platform now spend 60% of their time watching videos, and promises an “enhanced” recommendation algorithm in this new feed.
Also Messenger will receive a major update with the introduction of “Messenger Communities”a feature reminiscent of Slack or Discord. Users will be able to create multiple chatrooms on different topics within a larger group, such as an incoming college class with separate chats for announcements, campus news or student clubs.
These updates reflect a larger trend in the social media industry, moving away from content shared by friends and family to algorithmically recommended content. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has signaled in recent years that it is moving in this direction on both Facebook and Instagram, steadily increasing the amount of recommended content.
The goal seems to be di offer you a more experience dynamic and personalized to userstrying to compete with platforms like TikTok that have gained popularity thanks to their powerful recommendation algorithms. It remains to be seen how Facebook users will react to these changes and whether they will reinvigorate engagement on the platform.
