Meta tweaks the Facebook app to act more like TikTok
For most of Facebook's history, its executives have executed a tried-and-true playbook: Mimic the success of others.
The company, which has been renamed Meta, continued that tactic with a revamp of its main Facebook app that will change how users browse the service and make it act a bit more like one of its largest competitors.
Facebook users will soon open the app to a new Home tab that will feature a feed with photos, looping videos and status updates from a mix of friends and family. The Home tab also will show a variety of posts from people and pages unconnected to a user's network, labeled “Suggested for You.”
That category will be driven by what Facebook's algorithms think someone may like to see, based on thousands of individual information signals and the user's browsing history on Facebook. The so-called discovery engine behind those algorithms is powered by Facebook's artificial intelligence technology.
In short, the Facebook app will act more like TikTok, the Chineseowned social media app. While Facebook has historically connected people to content produced by their friends, the videobased TikTok relies on algorithmic signals and viral content to show viewers highly engaging posts, without having to rely on someone's network of friends or connections.
The change is part of a push by Meta to drive use of its social apps, which also include Instagram. In recent months, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, has promoted video products across Instagram and Facebook, with the company inserting more suggested content to keep users engaged and regularly returning to the apps.
On Instagram, the formula seems to be working, Zuckerberg has said.
The Home tab follows a popular social media trend known as “discovery,” which is essentially relying on algorithms and machine learning to better understand the types of content a user might like
and serving it up without the person's working hard to find it. Facebook is investing heavily in that area, as are companies like Snap and Twitter.
TikTok's emphasis on discovery and serving up engaging content has been a social media phenomenon. Founded less than a decade ago, TikTok has added hundreds of millions of users over the past few years. Young people spend more than 90 minutes a day watching TikTok, according to some estimates, besting even YouTube on time spent inside the app.
That has put pressure on Meta's family of apps. Its executives have grown concerned about the share of younger users migrating to TikTok and other up-and-coming social media apps.
To combat the attrition, Facebook and Instagram executives have made product changes that follow competitors' moves. In 2020, Instagram introduced Reels, a shortform, looping video product nearly identical to that produced by TikTok.
In the Facebook app update, users should expect to see more shortform video and Reels in the Home tab.
The Facebook app update will be rolled out globally this week.