Meta introduces a new “Home” feed on Facebook

On Thursday, July 21, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be getting a facelift. Per TechCrunch, users will soon see a revamped Home tab on Facebook that features a new Feeds tab. Home is what a person sees when they first open the app. It will include suggestions for Reels and Stories based on one’s Facebook browsing history and the platform’s artificial intelligence technology. The Feeds tab is where users will find their familiar personalized content such as posts, photos, and videos from their Facebook friends and group pages.

The new Home tab will also feature recommendations for content that is not generated by a person or group page within a user’s internal connections. According to the NY Times, the tab will show a variety of posts from accounts that are not connected to one’s network. This is the “Suggested for You” content, and it will only show up on the Home tab, not under a user’s Feeds. This will change how people browse Facebook as Meta tries to mimic TikTok with the algorithmic-powered Home page. Zuckerberg said that these suggestions you receive on the Home tab would be “content our discovery engine thinks you will care about the most.” 

The Feeds tab maintains Facebook’s traditional user experience, while the Home page demonstrates Meta’s attempt to mimic a TikTok-like experience. While the rival platform was founded less than a decade ago, TikTok has exploded in popularity thanks to its “discovery” methodology of understanding what kind of content users might enjoy and sending it directly to them. This means people do not have to spend time searching for content – it is found for them. Facebook’s changes have been prompted by this shift as Meta is trying to lure more users to its apps. This is also the logic behind Instagram Reels, launched in 2020. The short-form video feature was introduced as a direct competitor to TikTok.

Inevitably, noticeable changes like this do not appeal to all Facebook users. Zuckerberg pre-emptively addressed this as he confirmed that the Feeds tab would not only provide people with their personalized content but it would also allow them to further customize their user experience. This new Facebook update will launch worldwide over the coming week.