Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Facebook wants to make the News Feed your go-to source for news

Christian de Looper
By

Facebook Smart Phone App
Bloomua/Shutterstock
Your Facebook feed is about to get a whole lot more news-focused, if these screenshots are anything to go by.

It seems as though Facebook is testing a revised News Feed that could be its biggest change since the social media service was first launched. A screenshot from Twitter user @tomcritchlow shows the mobile layout for the changes, highlighting news topics at the bottom of the screen, including World & U.S., Sports, and Food. Presumably, the default section is the News Feed we know and love today.

Recommended Videos

“People have told us they’d like options to see more stories on Facebook around specific topics they’re interested in,” said a Facebook spokesperson in an email to Mashable. “So we have been testing a few feeds for people to view more and different stories from people and Pages based on topic areas.”

Related

Whoah. Massive change to the Facebook news feed. Anyone else seeing this? pic.twitter.com/EA3dFQRS6y

— Tom Critchlow (@tomcritchlow) April 15, 2016

Ideally, the reader-type approach to the News Feed will offer users the news that they actually care about — so those that want to see mainly sports news can head to the sports section. It could also encourage people to use Facebook as more of a news source, rather than the likes of Twitter, which has become a primary news source for many users.

The changes will also include a tool to edit the feeds that you want to see, so if you’re not much of a sports fan, you can remove the topic from the list of topics that you’ll be presented with. By default, however, all topics are on.

Of course, it’s not at all certain that the revamped feed will actually ever get a full launch, and it’s totally possible that Facebook is testing a feature that it will ultimately discard. Still, the idea of being able to decide what types of news you want to see is an appealing one, and if implemented it could make Facebook even more of an important app in our digital lives.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Christian de Looper
Christian de Looper
Contributor
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
If you can’t stand ads on Instagram, you’re going to hate this update
Samsung Galaxy S23 showing Instagram

Instagram has been ruffling the feathers of many users as of late with how many ads and suggested posts it shows from unfollowed accounts. Despite the frequent criticism of the app's near-constant ads, Meta announced in a recent blog post that Instagram will now feature an additional two new types of ads to clutter the feeds of all users.

One place where Instagram remained relatively ad-free was in the search results, as the app devoted that space entirely to directing people to the photos, reels, or other users that you're looking for. Now, users can expect to see ads popping up in the search results — making the results a little more padded and a little less helpful.

Read more
Instagram founders open Artifact news app to everyone
The Artifact news app.

Instagram’s a hard act to follow, but the app’s two creators are having a go with a new effort called Artifact.

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger released the news app at the end of January, but those interested in checking it out had to join a waitlist to access it.

Read more
Instagram to soon let creators make NFTs and sell them to fans
Series of four mobile screenshots showing the selling of collectibles on Instagram.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on your favorite social media platforms are apparently here to stay. At least that seems to be the case for one Meta-owned platform.

On Wednesday, as part of its Creator Week event, Meta announced that Instagram will soon let creators make and sell their own NFTs on the app itself. The new ability was described as another way for fans to support their favorite creators.

Read more