Facebook Launches Major Changes to Attract Young Users

• Facebook has announced a bunch of new features, including a complete platform redesign, in the hope of rejuvenating interest among young adults.
• Over the years, most of Facebook's young users have shifted to Instagram, Snapchat, and/or TikTok. The OG social media platform Facebook wants to change this.
• New updates include more focus on localization and personalization, a new dating feature, and changes to Facebook Groups and Facebook Events, among others.

Facebook has announced some major changes in a full-blown attempt to bring young users to its platform once again. When Facebook was launched, it was a one-of-a-kind social media platform, which made it a hub of young users.

However, over the years, with apps like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram taking over, Facebook has consistently lost its young crowd and is now stereotyped as the social media app for older folks.

For instance, data from the Pew Research Center suggests that a mere 33% of US teens currently use Facebook, compared to 71% of teens back in 2014.

This has been a long-standing problem for Facebook. Finally, on Friday last week, the company announced a complete redesign, along with several new features. Read on as I'll dive deep into what's new on Facebook.

1. Going Local

The first new addition is a tab named Local," which will accumulate local content from everywhere (Marketplace, Events, and Groups) under one tab.

Unlike Instagram and TikTok, which have a more global approach, Facebook is still used by people to find out local activities, events, and goods for sale. Now, the platform wants to make it easier for people to do so.

The feature will first roll out in testing in selected US cities, which include Chicago, Charlotte, New York, LA, Dallas, and Austin. Houston, Washington DC, Phoenix, and San Francisco.

Besides a dedicated Local tab, there will also be a swipeable section in your feed that will show interesting posts from your area.

2. Facebook Events

Facebook Events will get a separate update under which users will get a Weekly and Weekend Digest of upcoming events based on their interests. They will be delivered via a notification on Facebook.

You will also be able to invite (through SMS or email) friends and family who are on Instagram to create an event together. This includes people who do not have a registered Facebook account.

3. Facebook Group

A small update will be made to Facebook Groups as well. A Group AI" will be added that will help group members find answers to questions.

Once enabled (it has to be enabled by the group admin), it will create a chat-like interface for users where they can ask questions and they will be directed to relevant posts. This would be quite a relief for group admins, who often have to repeat the same stuff to every new member.

The feature has been rolled out in testing in the USA and Canada. In addition to this, content from groups will now be shown under a separate section called What people in groups are saying" when a user looks up a particular query.

4. The Explore Tab

A new Explore" tab will be added that will allow users to get personalized recommendations. The algorithm will work a lot like Instagram's, seeing as it will also show you entertaining content based on your interests.

Once the app is redesigned, the Explore tab will be the fifth button on the navigation bar at the bottom on iOS. For Android users, this bar can be found at the top of the screen.

This page, too, will be divided into two sections: a Nearby" tab that shows local content and a For You" section that shows personalized content.

To further enhance the quality of your entertainment, Facebook's Video tab will offer a full-screen video player in the coming weeks. Even better, long-form, short-form, and live videos will all be available in a single place.

Since young social media users are heavily inclined towards reels, a transformed video-watching experience might finally draw them to Facebook.

5. Facebook Dating

That's right! Facebook is officially adding a dating feature. It's an open secret that people have used Facebook (or any other social media app, for that matter) for dating for, quite frankly, as long as the platform has existed.

However, never before has a platform made an official way to match people. Facebook noticed that dating conversations on the platform had increased by 24% year-over-year among young adults in the USA and Canada.

So, it has now launched a dedicated feature called Matchmaker, which will allow up to 5 friends of yours to swipe through potential matches for you.

Other Notable Updates

In addition to the above-mentioned major updates, Facebook has a few other exciting, albeit small announcements as well.

• A new image-generation tool called Imagine Yourself" has been added to Facebook's Stories and Feed, as well as the user's profile page.
• AI Comment Summary, as the name suggests, will provide you with a summary of what people are saying in the comment section of a post. This feature is available across public Groups, Pages, and Creators.
• The Notes feature (you might remember it from Messenger) that allows you to share your current thoughts in a bubble will also be added to Facebook. Similarly, Messenger's Memories feature, which allows you to dig out photos from old chats, is also being rolled out.
• Last but not least, a new Community feature will be added to Messenger (similar to the one on WhatsApp) that allows people to connect via shared interests. You can call it a more streamlined alternative to Facebook Groups. It will come with a shareable QR code (just like on WhatsApp) for users to join.

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