Mark Zuckerberg and other Meta executives have been saying for some time that competing with TikTok has been their top priority. We now have additional details on how they plan to completely overhaul the Facebook app to achieve this.
The social network is working on a major redesign of Facebook’s main stream that will heavily highlight recommended content from pages, creators, and people you don’t follow, according to a Facebook executive’s note.
Tom Alison, head of the Facebook app at Meta, states that the goal is to turn Facebook into a “Discovery Engine” that relies heavily on recommendations, similar to TikTok’s “Discovery Engine.” Suggestions will come mainly from “unlinked” content, and users will see fewer posts from friends and family in their feeds. Messenger will also return to Facebook, encouraging users to share more content from the “Discovery Engine”.
It’s unclear how long it will take Meta to implement these changes, some of which are already happening on Instagram. However, this is the first time Meta executives are talking about major changes to Facebook. It remains to be seen whether the changes will work and whether they will give Facebook a competitive advantage.