Meta’s Facebook is planning a redesign to compete with TikTok and will restructure its main feed around videos and tweak its algorithm, The Verge reported, citing a leaked internal memo from Tom Alison, Meta VP in charge of Facebook.
Facebook’s main feed is now populated with posts and content from pages, people and groups users follow. Under the proposed redesign, recommendations would point to creators, people and pages users don’t know.
The goal is to shift Facebook into a “discovery engine,” which would rely on recommendations, similar to TikTok’s “For You” feed, according to the report. The redesign will also re-integrate Messenger with Facebook after being separated eight years ago, mirroring TikTok’s messaging functionality.
See also: Facebook Loses Ground to TikTok, YouTube as Use of Video Apps Surges
Alison told The Verge that the company failed to notice just how much of a threat TikTok was becoming but now sees clearly how the video app is moving into its turf. Alison pointed to the popularity of private messaging in TikTok and its tab for seeing friends’ videos.
“I think the thing we probably didn’t fully embrace or see is how social this format could be,” Alison told The Verge.
Read more: Consumers 51% More Engaged in Video Streaming, Social Media Browsing Than Shopping Online
“What we’re really finding is that people want to connect over content,” he told The Verge. “And so a lot of where we’re going with Facebook is trying to bring you the best content that’s going to really cater to your interests, but then making it super easy to share that and discuss and connect with other people in your network over that.”
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The redesign will have Facebook’s main tab spotlighting a mix of Stories and Reels above recommended posts, which will be curated from its site as well as Instagram. The overall interface will be more visual, with clearer prompts for sending friends a post via direct message.
Instagram has already started emphasizing videos, recently extending Reels to 90 seconds and enabling users to pin three posts to the top of their grid. In April, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri asked users to stop reposting TikToks to Instagram, according to reports.
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