At the beginning of this year, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that a primary focus for the year would be “returning to some OG Facebook.” Today, we’re beginning to witness that shift with the introduction of a new Friends tab in the Facebook app.
The New Friends Tab: A Blast from Facebook’s Past
Mike Isaac reports for The New York Times:
Meta announced that the Facebook app will now feature a dedicated news feed highlighting posts shared solely by friends and family. This feature, dubbed the Friends Tab, will replace the previous tab that displayed new friend requests and suggested connections. Instead, the Friends Tab will present a continuous feed of updates, including photos, video stories, text posts, birthday alerts, and friend requests. For now, this feature will be available exclusively to users in the United States and Canada.
“Having a centralized place to see what’s happening with your friends was the essence of early social media,” stated Mr. Alison, head of the Facebook app. “We’re ensuring that there remains a space for this on Facebook, as it’s something that should not be overshadowed by the complexities of modern social media.”
While changing a single tab in the Facebook app might appear trivial, the new Friends tab introduces a critical feature that has been absent from Facebook for quite some time.
The original Facebook experience revolved entirely around your connections with friends and family.
When you added friends, their updates, writings, and shares would populate your feed.
As time passed, however, the main feed became inundated with assorted content. Suggested posts, brand content, and other distractions crowded out the essence of what initially made Facebook appealing.
Now, this newly introduced Friends tab appears to recapture elements of the original main feed, reminiscent of when the platform thrived.
As mentioned in the article, this update is being rolled out starting today. I needed to forcibly quit the app before the change appeared for me, but if you haven’t seen it yet and are located in the US or Canada, it should be coming your way soon.
What are your thoughts on Facebook’s new Friends tab? Feel free to share in the comments.
