One of the most annoying things about Facebook is that it can just give and take away your favorite features whenever it wants. It has always been a very one-sided relationship with users always having to deal with whatever UI update or tweak that the Facebook Devs have rolled out. Now, however, that looks set to change as Facebook is now giving users more control over their own feeds.
Mark Zuckerberg himself announced that Facebook is rolling out what he calls one of the most requested features for Facebook. The Facebook app on Android and iOS is getting a new Feeds tab that will allow users to control what comes up in their feed.
In recent years, Facebook has become overrun with promo content and videos from big brands. This has led to lots of users complaining that they are actually missing all the stuff they want to see like posts from friends and family, etc. because they are constantly being shown nice-looking promo content that works well with Facebook’s algorithm.
In the Facebook post announcing the change, Mark Zuckerberg said:
“So today we’re launching a Feeds tab where you can see posts from your friends, groups, Pages and more separately in chronological order. The app will still open to a personalized feed on the Home tab, where our discovery engine will recommend the content we think you’ll care most about. But the Feeds tab will give you a way to customize and control your experience further.”
The new feature means you will be able to create a Favorites list, which will allow you to select special friends or family members whose posts you will see. This means that when they post to Facebook their posts won’t have to compete with memes, etc. to show up on your feed.
This is good news for Facebook users, and it will take the app back to its roots when it was primarily a tool for keeping up with friends and family. The new feature should be rolling out now so keep an eye out for the new tab, which will show up either at the top or bottom of the app, depending on whether you use an Android or iOS device.
In other recent Facebook news, Amazon has taken legal action against thousands of Facebook Group admins in a bid to stop a wave of fake reviews flooding the e-commerce platform.