LONDON: Meta Platforms said on Thursday it was revamping the main feed on its Facebook app to prioritize “discovery” of new content, instead of posts from accounts users follow, in a bid to style its apps after short-form video competitor TikTok.
Meta executives have voiced increased urgency in recent months around boosting Meta’s ‘reels’, similar to TikTok’s short video format, which has been especially popular with younger users.
’Home’, Facebook’s main news feed tab that users will see when they open the app will start heavily featuring popular posts from accounts that users do not follow, including reels and stories, Meta said in a statement.
Facebook will suggest posts to users with its machine learning ranking system and is investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to serve recommended content, it added.
Its existing news feed, featuring recent posts from friends, pages and groups that users actively choose to follow, will move to a new separate tab called ‘Feeds’.
Feeds will include advertisements, however, Meta said that it will not have posts suggested for the user.
Adam Mosseri, head of the company’s Instagram app, announced tests of a more “immersive” TikTok-style viewing experience in May, while Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told investors in April that Meta was making significant investments in AI and machine learning to support the “discovery engine” approach.
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 to provide extra computing power for AI.
Meta’s Facebook revamping main feed to attract younger users
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Meta’s Facebook revamping main feed to attract younger users
- Facebook existing news feed, featuring recent posts from friends, pages and groups that users actively choose to follow, will move to a new separate tab called ‘Feeds’.
Hezbollah says Israeli strike killed Al-Manar TV presenter in southern Lebanon
- The Israeli military said later on Monday that Al-Din was a Hezbollah militant who recently worked to rehabilitate the group’s artillery capabilities in southern Lebanon
The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Monday that an Israeli strike in the country’s south killed TV presenter Ali Nour Al-Din, who worked for the group’s affiliated Al-Manar television station.
The group said the killing portends “the danger of Israel’s extended escalations (in Lebanon) to include the media community.”
The Israeli military said later on Monday that Al-Din was a Hezbollah militant who recently worked to rehabilitate the group’s artillery capabilities in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024 to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which culminated in Israeli strikes that severely weakened the Iran-backed militant group. Since then, the sides have traded accusations over ceasefire violations.
Lebanon has faced growing pressure from the US and Israel to disarm Hezbollah. The group’s leaders fear that Israel could dramatically escalate strikes across the battered country, aiming to push the Lebanese government for quicker action to confiscate Hezbollah’s arsenal.
