Facebook wants you to move beyond your friends list.
The social media site announced several changes today about what kind of content you see on the site, and most of the new content will be from outside your contacts list.
The biggest changes are the addition of two new tabs — Local and Explore.
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Local is a community hub of sorts. You’ll see what’s going on around your area with combined content from the existing Marketplace, Groups, and Events tabs. In your Local tab, you might see a post about a festival downtown alongside a post from your neighbor down the street getting rid of some old furniture. Local is currently testing in 10 cities — Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
You’ll also see a weekly and weekend digest for events, which are compilations of upcoming event recommendations in your area based on your interests.
Explore will function exactly like the Instagram feature of the same name. In this tab, you’ll see content tailored to your interests. This content isn’t just to entertain, Meta says, but to help. You’ll see posts from real people and communities geared towards things you like. You might see travel tips, DIY tutorials, financial info, and recipes all in the same space.
If you’re a Discord or Slack user, you’ll recognize Facebook’s new Messenger Communities feature. Meta says this is “a new way for small- to medium-sized communities to connect over shared interests.” You can create topic-based chats within a larger community, for example, student club recruitment, campus events, and class schedules.
There’s also a new Tiktok-style Video tab that will show full-screen video content, including both live and short-form Reels, a customizable Group AI to help group members find answers to common questions, and a tool that lets you invite people to Facebook events through Instagram or SMS, meaning people can see and respond to invites whether they’re Facebook users or not.
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These additions should be rolling out over the coming days.
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