Meta Platforms said on Thursday it was revamping the main feed on its Facebook app. The move aims to prioritize the “discovery” of new content, instead of posts from accounts users follow. It is a bid to style its apps after short-form video competitor TikTok.
Meta executives have voiced increased urgency in recent months around boosting the company’s “Reels” product. This is quite similar to TikTok’s short video format which has attracted many younger users.
All about the new feed
“Home”, Facebook’s main news feed tab that users see when they open the app, will start more heavily featuring popular posts from accounts that users do not follow. It includes Reels and Stories, Meta said in a statement.
Facebook will suggest posts to users with its machine learning ranking system. Moreover, the company is investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to serve recommended content, it added.
A new separate tab called ‘Feeds’ will offer a version of the old approach. The same will overwhelmingly feature posts from friends, pages, and groups that users actively choose to follow. Feeds in that tab will be presented chronologically, without personalized ranking, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. Meta said the feeds will not include suggested posts but will still have advertisements.
Changes in the algorithm
The world’s biggest social media company has gone all in on algorithmic recommendations in recent months. It comes after the threat from the exponential growth of TikTok in the last few years.
Earlier this month, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox told employees there was a plan to increase fivefold the number of graphic processing units (GPUs) in its data centers by the year-end. The action aims to provide extra computing power for AI.