It’s all about community and privacy.
After a brutal 2018 that forced Facebook to
admit it hasn’t got the best name when it involves privacy,
Mark Zuckerberg has huge plans
for the social networking platform in 2019: Facebook is being redesigned.
Zuckerberg made the announcements during Facebook’s F8 event near the company’s home turf in San Jose, California, where he addressed the past year of problems regarding privacy, security and decreasing trust in the platform.
The re-creation of
Facebook, codenamed ‘FB5’, will be the largest modification the social network
has practiced in
years: almost every single aspect of the platform is changing in some way. There’s lots of information to process, and we’ve wrapped
up everything you need to know right here.
New internet and mobile designs
The fifth major redesign of Facebook is incoming, codenamed ‘FB5’, and it’ll make communities – known as groups – the main target, featuring a sleek redesign that should make it quicker and more reliable, not to mention more visually appealing.
The new Facebook mobile app should now be live too, as a much faster and more immersive experience.
Facebook has made finding what you’re searching for more convenient,
and more importantly claims to have made it safer and more secure. This is the largest change to the Facebook app
in 5 years – even the
Facebook logo is being
updated for 2019.
There’s a new Facebook desktop website, too, and it should be much lighter on system resources,
with the identical design language as the mobile app. it’ll be coming within the next few months, with some updates showing up right away.
All about building community
Zuckerberg made it clear that Facebook’s focus is shifting to
communities both public and private. This means that groups are going to be the core focus: there
are already tens of millions of active groups on Facebook.
Groups are going to be easier to find, and easier to participate in, due to a brand new, redesigned groups tab. this
will show you a
personalized feed of all of your groups, so you’ll be able to focus on your communities in a single place, instead of parsing them out
from the rest of your
News Feed.
Users will also notice that group recommendations will crop up in more places, however they’ll be more relevant to what you’re
doing within the app. for example, you may see more ‘buy and sell’ groups show up in the Marketplace, and today in gaming might suggest a new gaming group for
you to join.
The News Feed also will be redesigned in order that you can more simply share content directly to your groups; however this new community
approach goes beyond Groups.
Facebook is launching Facebook dating in more countries, together with a new feature called Secret Crush. The idea is that you can opt in to this, and name up to 9 of your friends who you have interest in.
If any of those friends opt in
to the program and name you as one of
their secret crushes, then you’ll be matched; if the secret crush isn’t mutual, no one will know the names you entered.
Facebook dating was already live in 5 countries,
and has now been expanded to 14 more. The service will launch in the U.S.A. at the end of the year.
There will also be some new ways to meet friends, through the new
Meet New Friends feature. This is also an opt-in feature, so you’ll only be
exposed to people who are open to meeting new people. This feature will work along with your groups; therefore you can simply add
new friends from your favorite community.
Everything
else
Facebook’s Marketplace is also obtaining some improvements – in the U.S.A. you’ll be able
to ship products across
the country instead of just locally, and users will
be able to pay for stuff safely and securely through the Facebook
app. this should make shopping on the Facebook platform safer for both sellers and buyers.
The Events tab is additionally getting a
makeover, and it’ll be easier to explore your city. You’ll be able
to coordinate along
with your friends, find local businesses, and find a new favorite restaurant based on your own personal
preferences.
There are many Facebook changes coming in the next
few months, and it could transform the way people use the platform day-in and day-out – and at the very least, the hope is that
these changes will make the social network safer, and less divisive.