Facebook wants to woo more younger users to join its social network, instead of spending all their time on TikTok, Instagram, and other social apps. To do so, parent company Meta on Friday announced a series of changes to the older social network which will put greater emphasis on local community information, videos, and Facebook Groups, among other things. Other Facebook products, like Meta AI, Facebook Dating, and Messenger are receiving updates as well.
Most notably, the emphasis of Facebook’s redesign, announced today at a Facebook IRL pop-up event in Austin, will be partly on its entertainment options — a move meant to rival apps like TikTok. The changes will also focus on the more practical offerings Facebook provides users in a local community. Beyond buy/sell groups, the site has become a key staging ground and communication hub for other local groups, like those impacted by natural disasters, as is currently the case in states impacted by Hurricane Helene. (Due to climate change, these types of disaster response groups will likely become more common, too.)
The updates come as the Facebook brand is in decline, which led the company to rename itself Meta in 2021, shifting its focus away from its top social app and onto the metaverse instead. Facebook’s user base has been growing older, and younger people haven’t been signing up in great numbers to create a new generation of users.
That’s particularly true in the U.S. According to data from the Pew Research Center only 33% of U.S. teens are now on Facebook as of last year, down from 71% of teens in 2014.
Still, Meta is hopeful because it found that young adults, particularly 20-somethings, have been using the site for certain features, like Facebook Groups and Marketplace, for instance. The New York Times even covered the latter, as an example of how Facebook was being used by the next generation as a place to thrift shop, not to socialize.
Today’s series of updates capitalize on these trends by making Facebook more approachable for those wanting to connect with their local community or be entertained, rather than as a friend-focused social network.
New Facebook Features
For starters, Facebook is introducing a new tab called “Local,” which will pull in local content from across places like Marketplace, Groups, and Events into a single section. Here, users will find things like nearby activities, local groups offering items for sale or for free, local recommendations about new neighborhood hot spots, and more.
The tab will initially only be available in testing in select U.S. cities, including Austin, New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, and Phoenix.
In addition to the Local tab, a user’s local community will be highlighted in other ways on Facebook. A new, swipeable section will appear in the user’s Facebook Feed (formerly, News Feed) which will showcase interesting posts and information from the area. This may include things like local events, local Facebook Groups, notable people or businesses, items for sale on Marketplace, and more.
The social network is introducing a new “Explore” tab as well, focused on personalized recommendations. This section will be powered by an algorithm that will surface not just content that entertains, but those that will connect you to interests, even if they’re narrowly defined. As an example, Facebook says users might find things like tips for traveling abroad for the first time, DIY tricks for repurposing furniture, or running groups for marathon training, among other things.
The Explore tab will also gain a prominent place in the redesigned app, becoming the fifth button on the bottom navigation bar on iOS (top bar on Android), and one that’s directly in the center of the app.
Clicking through will take you to a page that looks a lot like Pinterest or ByteDance’s Instagram/Pinterest competitor, Lemon8, which has been growing in popularity among younger users thanks to its promotion on TikTok. The page will be split into two sections, a “For You” feed and one focused on “Nearby,” or more local content.
In terms of entertainment, the Video tab on Facebook will be updated in the weeks ahead to offer a full-screen video player that will allow users to watch short-form, long-form, and live videos in one place. This will give reels a more prominent place on Facebook, the company notes, and it reflects the use of video by younger users. On Facebook, young adults spend nearly 60% of their on the app watching videos, and more than half of them are watching Reels daily, Facebook points out.
Facebook Events and Groups are being updated too.
Facebook Events will also receive an upgrade by offering users both a Weekly and Weekend Digest of upcoming events based on their interests. These will come via a Facebook notification, the company says.
Users will also be able to invite Instagram followers to events created on Facebook, as well as via SMS and email invites to those who have not registered an account on the site.
A new AI feature is coming to Facebook Groups, too. The “Group AI” offering will help members of groups find answers to questions — including those that have previously been asked. This addresses one of the bigger headaches for Group admins, who find that new people joining the group typically ask the same questions again and again. The feature will have to be enabled by a Group’s admin, which then introduces a chat-like interface where Group members can ask questions and be linked to relevant group posts. The test is currently rolling out in the U.S. and Canada.
The Groups update in particular targets a major area of Facebook for the next generation, as Groups now attract 1.8 billion users, and 25 million public groups are active every month, Meta notes.
In addition to making Groups’ content easier to find on a per-group basis, Facebook’s search results will also organize content from groups in a section titled “What people in groups are saying.”
Meanwhile, still hoping to build a space for online dating now that dating apps are passé, Facebook Dating will add a “Matchmaker” feature that will allow up to 5 friends to swipe through potential matches for you. The company says this feature was introduced because the company saw that Facebook Dating conversations had increased 24% year-over-year among young adults in the U.S. and Canada.
Other AI updates and new Messenger features
Overall, the changes across Facebook aim to make the network more appealing to the next generation of users, who use the site in a different way than the young adults who first joined the site in their youth, and are now approaching middle age. That includes embracing new technology, like AI.
A Meta AI-powered “Imagine Yourself” image-generation feature is being integrated into Facebook’s Feed, Stories, and on the user’s profile page, as previously announced.
Plus, AI comment summaries — appearing across public Groups, Pages, and Creators — have been rolled out. (We’d argue that they aren’t that useful, though, and detract from one of the more engaging Facebook experiences — scrolling through crazy comment sections!)
Related to today’s news, the Notes feature from Messenger, which lets you share your current status in a bubble above your profile, will arrive on Facebook, initially as a test. Messenger’s Memories feature, which resurfaces photos from past chats, is also beginning to roll out.
Messenger will additionally gain a new Communities feature, similar to WhatsApp, focused on letting people connect via their shared interests. These will offer an alternative to Facebook Groups and will include a shareable QR code for joining.
The changes also follow this week’s launch of a new monetization program for creators that lets them earn more from content formats across Facebook.
