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Facebook is redesigning its feed to keep up with TikTok

The platform wants to start pushing more recommended content to your feed.

by
Alex Gatewood
June 16, 2022

Image: Unsplash

Facebook is gearing up for a major overhaul of its feed in an effort to keep up with TikTok’s bustling success. In fact, employees at the company were recently given a memo informing them of the plans to change the way people experience the social platform.

The Verge recently obtained an internal memo from the company detailing Facebook’s plans. In the memo, the platform’s head executive, Tom Allison, explains how Facebook will make a shift towards TikTok’s method of recommending content on users’ feeds.

As most of us know by now, TikTok has mastered the art of keeping users on the platform for a long time. It does this by recommending and connecting users to new content regularly through its “For You” page.

And that’s seemingly what Facebook is looking to accomplish with its change. In fact, only about 11 percent of the content users see on their Facebook feed comes from recommendations. The rest is content that the user has already connected with, through following or adding friends.

The new feed will emphasize recommending new content to users. Additionally, the platform will increase its focus on Reels.

facebook reels on an iphone — Image: KnowTechie

Reels are the short-form videos that Meta created to directly compete with TikTok. Users will start seeing more recommended Reels from new creators at the top of their feed.

Another change that Facebook is planning is bringing the Messenger app back to the main Facebook app.

Facebook launched Messenger as its own app and broke it away from the main app eight years ago. Now, the platform wants to reel back that change by adding it back into the main Facebook app.

It’s unclear exactly when these changes will come. Chances are, a lot of these changes will come to the app over time. But the platform certainly wants to act as quickly as possible, as TikTok continues to skyrocket in popularity.

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