Meta is finally bringing OG Facebook back in a subtle way by renewing its focus on friends. Thanks to a new Friends Tab in the iOS and Android apps, users can chose to see just their friend’s stories, reels, posts, birthdays and friend requests.
Currently, the Facebook newsfeed or timeline shows just about anything and everything that you do not want to see including irrelevant reels, groups posts, videos, marketplace posts and other fake news and content. You rarely see important posts or updates about your friends that truly matter.
From today, a new Friends tab in the mobile apps will replaces the section where users could previously go to see friend requests and “people you may know”. This section will not show friends’ stories, reels, posts, birthdays, as well as friend requests.
This feature is available starting today for users in the United States and Canada. Apparently, Meta decided that the rest of the world doesn’t want to see their friends’ posts as much.
The Friends tab can be added as a quick access option in the bottom navigation bar by going to your profile picture on the Home feed, going to “Settings & Privacy,” > “Settings” > “Tab bar.”, customizing the bar and clicking on Friends to pin it to the tab. Not confusing at all.
Facebook’s announcement post contains a bit of irony too, as per the quote below:
Social media should feel social. In that spirit, we’ll be adding more fun, simple experiences to help you connect and share on Facebook throughout the year.
This is from a company that ruined its social network experience by rewarding spam, clickbait, news, and politics, and entirely ignoring the fact that Facebook was meant to stay connected with friends. Let’s see what more tha company does to go back further to its roots this year.
