It comes after a painful year for Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant – from privacy failures to public relations scandals. The main shift is in how Facebook positions Groups and Events features on its main app, which is intended to get more users communicating about the things they are interested in, from community groups to music gigs, sports and classes.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="Zuckerberg has also billed the app “evolution” as a privacy-first build. “We are going to talk about building a privacy focused social platform,” Zuckerberg told attendees of Facebook’s F8 conference in San Jose. The updates to the main Facebook app – codenamed FB5 – will bring major shifts in how Facebook plans for people to use its service.” data-reactid=”15″>Zuckerberg has also billed the app “evolution” as a privacy-first build. “We are going to talk about building a privacy focused social platform,” Zuckerberg told attendees of Facebook’s F8 conference in San Jose. The updates to the main Facebook app – codenamed FB5 – will bring major shifts in how Facebook plans for people to use its service.
Here is what that will really mean for users.
Groups in greater focus
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="As well the most noticeable cosmetic change (revamping its iconic blue trim) Facebook’s app on mobile and on traditional desktops is getting a substantial update.” data-reactid=”18″>As well the most noticeable cosmetic change (revamping its iconic blue trim) Facebook’s app on mobile and on traditional desktops is getting a substantial update.
While there will still be the usual News Feed, features for Groups and Events will be significantly more prominent. Other tabs like Stories will also get a boost to connect you to more to friends, and encourage you to spend less time scrolling passively in the News Feed and getting into arguments over politics and fake news.
The objective of this is twofold. While it should give users a reason to keep coming back to Facebook if their sports team or hobby club all interact on the app, it will also help to deter critics from the idea that social media has become an echo chamber for harmful and aggressive online behaviour.
This shift, amid concerns from regulators, is what social media consultant Matt Navarra dubs a “move towards a front room, or living room, experience, rather than being a town square”.
Facebook’s new Groups tool will aim to find interest groups for people more quickly and give them a cross section view of what is going on in different communities they are part of. Essentially you will have a dedicated tab just for your Groups.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="While these seem like small changes, it is part of a big push from Facebook to move users towards using it in a different way. But it also helps build on areas Facebook wants to invest in, from adding new features to job placement groups (which will help Facebook’s own job board efforts) gaming communities and enhanced shopping features through its MarketPlace.” data-reactid=”34″>While these seem like small changes, it is part of a big push from Facebook to move users towards using it in a different way. But it also helps build on areas Facebook wants to invest in, from adding new features to job placement groups (which will help Facebook’s own job board efforts) gaming communities and enhanced shopping features through its MarketPlace.
All of that, Facebook believes, will encourage people to use the app even more.
Messaging goes private
Privacy is Facebook’s big gamble, but it is a move the company believes will keep it ahead of the game as messaging becomes increasingly ephemeral and tightly-focused. In Europe, rules around privacy have shifted, forcing companies to do more to protect user data. Many younger users are using apps like Facebook less, instead using features like Instagram’s direct messaging feature, while hundreds of millions in South East Asia use WhatsApp, and other rival apps like WeChat dominate China.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="After dealing with criticism over privacy scandals and facing up to $5bn in fine from the US Federal Trade Commission, Zuckerberg has begun what could be a major change of direction.” data-reactid=”38″>After dealing with criticism over privacy scandals and facing up to $5bn in fine from the US Federal Trade Commission, Zuckerberg has begun what could be a major change of direction.
The first move will be the encryption of Facebook’s Messenger app, while it will give greater emphasis to its Stories product, which includes disappearing videos from users.
However, it remains a gamble. Advertisers do not fully know what product decisions will come about as a result of Facebook’s move away from public posts into private features that become front and centre.
“It’s clear that Facebook doesn’t yet know the full impact of its shift to a privacy led service,” says Geoff Blaber, US head of research at CCS Insight. “Implications for advertising revenue seem inevitable.”
For the user experience, Messenger will see major updates. It will get a dedicated desktop app to make messaging a more central experience and its mobile app will be made smaller, less cluttered and faster. New features will be added to share videos. There will also be a “Close Friends” tab, that will include previews of friends’ Facebook Stories.
Perhaps the biggest change in usability will be the addition of functions to message friends in WhatsApp or Instagram all from the one app.
One final aspect of this, however, will be to stave off regulation concerns that Facebook should break up its family of apps into separate businesses. Making all those apps interlinked will pour cold water over arguments they can be easily split apart.
Getting to know more strangers
From its inception, Facebook’s stated aim has been to connect friends. However, that could only drive its growth machine so far. Now, with the extension of its Groups feature, Facebook wants you to expand your social circle.
Meet New Friends is the new feature that will, in theory, make that easier. You will be able to sign up to connect to people that share your school, workplace or location by inputting your own interests (Facebook says this will eventually extend to Groups). Fitness, for example, or pet playdates. You will then be matched with like-minded people who you can message (only once, to prevent spam or unwanted attention).
The benefit to Facebook is clear; with an ever-widening social circle, you are more likely to keep coming back to the site.
“It is going back to their roots,” says Navarra. “It has focused less on news content. In terms of growth – of getting more people active and engaged with meaningful relationships- [Meet New Friends] will be a good thing in many ways. But it is a business decision.”
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="However, there is always the concern that both Meet New Friends and Facebook’s expanded Dating options will run contrary to Facebook’s missive to run a more private platform.” data-reactid=”76″>However, there is always the concern that both Meet New Friends and Facebook’s expanded Dating options will run contrary to Facebook’s missive to run a more private platform.
“They want to make sure the dating product is ready,” says Navarra. “But there may be some privacy concerns, it is a whole area of peoples lives that they have yet to be able to get rich data on.”
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="The dating side of Facebook’s reboot is potentially its most challenging; with the company desperately trying to shake off its mildly creepy reputation and laissez-faire approach to privacy. Probably not helped by the addition of the Secret Crush feature, which allows you to select up to nine friends you are romantically attracted to. If the selection is mutual, Facebook will let you know. A feature that has already been widely chided for being, you guessed it, mildly creepy.” data-reactid=”89″>The dating side of Facebook’s reboot is potentially its most challenging; with the company desperately trying to shake off its mildly creepy reputation and laissez-faire approach to privacy. Probably not helped by the addition of the Secret Crush feature, which allows you to select up to nine friends you are romantically attracted to. If the selection is mutual, Facebook will let you know. A feature that has already been widely chided for being, you guessed it, mildly creepy.
And finally, making Instagram more like the old Facebook
Since Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, the company has been integrating Facebook-style features into the photo-sharing app. While Instagram remains more minimalist than Facebook’s sprawl of features and notifications, it has added videos, tagging, advertising and shopping.
The ‘Facebookification’ of Instagram makes sense for the company, with Instagram enjoying extraordinary growth – up 200m users year-on-year to reach 1bn active monthly users last June – and arguably enjoying more credibility and less scandal than the main site.
Instagram is looking to enhance their reputation there with the addition of donation stickers, which will allow users to post stories with a link to participating non-profit organisations
With all the sweeping privacy changes on Facebook, the company clearly see Instagram as fertile ground, with more monetisation on the way for app. The newly announced Create Mode is essentially a version of Facebook’s “block colour updates”, with you able to share statuses and stories without taking a photo or video. A relatively benign addition, if one that moves Instagram further away from its original purpose.
<p class="canvas-atom canvas-text Mb(1.0em) Mb(0)–sm Mt(0.8em)–sm" type="text" content="But more drastic is the expansion of the shopping tools that Instagram introduced last month, allowing users to buy products directly from the site in the US. Now “influencers” and manufacturers will be able to tag products for sale on their posts.” data-reactid=”95″>But more drastic is the expansion of the shopping tools that Instagram introduced last month, allowing users to buy products directly from the site in the US. Now “influencers” and manufacturers will be able to tag products for sale on their posts.
Brands will doubtless see a direct route to millions of potential customers in the guise of followers of social media starlets like Kylie Jenner. Instagram says influencers will not receive a cut of products sold on the site, no doubt that sponsorship deals already in place will take this potentially lucrative avenue into place.
In Canada the site is also trialling reducing the visibility of likes and follower counts. This is a move proffered to reduce the pressure of having a successful social media account and encourage followers to engage with the content of posts rather than their popularity. Much has been made of the negative impact on mental health social media can have, and this move is designed to relieve some of the potential stress.
As are the “ideas” Instagram are working on to combat bullying on the site, such as “nudging” people typing a derogatory comment to rethink and allowing users to set themselves as “away” during a testing time. These are not confirmed features, with Instagram boss Adam Mosseri suggesting that some “may not see the light of day”. The increased shopping features begin in the US next week.
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