Facebook announced a revamp of its News Feed yesterday and today we have a hands on for you. There are plenty of changes to the News Feed, which can be confusing at first. Here’s what it’s like to use the updated News Feed.
This is a huge redesign and will change much of the core interface of Facebook. Will users adopt it with open arms or will there be an uproar to bring the old News Feed back? Let’s find out.
If you signed up to receive the News Feed update, you should be getting it soon. Once you do, you will be greeted to a series of helpful tutorials about what’s changed. The first thing you’ll notice is that the apps, pages, and your chat list have been combined into one column on the left.
To the right, you’ll notice all of the new News Feeds you have access to. By default, Facebook will only show you a news feed of what it thinks is important to you. You can click on “All Friends” if you want to view every update from all of your friends. You can also select the “Following” feed to use as an alternative to RSS. Companies and pages you’ve followed will show up here. There are also feeds for Groups, Photos, Games, Music and more. The amount of customization is very good.
In each of these feeds, you’ll notice more of a media rich experience. Every photo or video thumbnail will show up quite a bit larger, making it more like that “personalized newspaper” that Facebook was talking about at its press conference. This is what a single photo looks like in the News Feed before it’s maximized.
Photo albums show up in a mosaic and are much larger than they were before. Text is overlaid on top of the photos making it look seamless.
Even news articles are more visually appealing. The thumbnail of the featured image of the article show up larger and the text is much easier to read than with the old News Feed.
Beyond the visual refresh, Facebook has included a ton of control and choice over what information you receive in your feed. There are sections for different feeds like Music. If you haven’t “liked” a bunch of things on Facebook, these new feeds will lack content. Facebook does try to help you get more content by suggesting people, artists, or things to “like” or follow.
Overall, the updated News Feed is a pleasure to use. The visual refresh makes it reason enough to upgrade. If you are an active Facebook user who “likes” a bunch of different things, the new modular feeds will be an excellent way to organize information. The News Feed feels much more modern and fresh. Jumping back and forth between the News Feed and Timeline (although there is a new Timeline coming) makes it apparent just how dated Facebook’s old design looks.
What do you think of the updated News Feed? Let us know in the comments.
