The New Algorithm Update and Redesign of Facebook

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Recently, Facebook has polished its timeline, promising a better user experience.

The average Facebook user has roughly 1,500 stories per day that could appear in their news feed and Facebook selectively picks less than 20% of those stories. The company has been preoccupied with the timeline over the past six months, releasing series of algorithm updates and redesign. They want to provide every user with “personalised online timeline”. Here are some highlights on several alterations that have been made over the last six months:

1. Auto-play Videos Feature

The first tested auto-play videos in Facebook mobile was in September, while the desktop version got the auto-play videos in December. The social media company began testing this function for video ads a week later, but put off its full implementation until this day. These videos play automatically as you scroll through your News Feed. They won’t have any sound unless a user clicks on them. This does not include shared videos from third party sites, like YouTube, but only videos uploaded directly to Facebook.

2. Bigger Photos

Facebook included larger images in users’ timeline as a part of their platform’s redesign program, which was announced in March. Photos now span the entire width of the timeline.

3. High Quality News Stories

Facebook changed its news feed algorithm in December in order to provide better contents on the platform. That means more updated news and current events for users. This change affected both its desktop and mobile versions. It looks like that Facebook is trying hard to become Twitter’s competitor when it comes to provide the “latest” breaking news and quick social conversations that result from it.

4. “Looping” Contents

With the algorithm change that gives more “high quality” content, Facebook  will “accidentally” makes some stories reappear, even if you’ve read them. This may bother some users, yet Facebook does not want you to miss a conversation where your best buddies might be raving about.

Here’s Facebook’s official statement regarding the change, excerpted from its blog:

 “After people read a story, they are unlikely to go back and find that story again to see what their friends were saying about it, and it wouldn’t bump up in News Feed. With this update, stories will occasionally resurface that have new comments from friends.”

5. More Content from Brands

On February, Facebook has made another small algorithm change to help brands expand their audience. The change is “when a brand tags another brand in its posts, their content can now reach fans of both brand pages”. This change is considered as a good move by social media marketers around the world, as companies and brands now can broaden their scoop towards new audiences.

Summary

With these changes, Facebook users can have more over their timeline. In order to have “personalised, rich user experiences” timeline, all you have to do is to participate with posts and Pages that you like most. You can like, comment, or share their contents to “show” your engagement. On the other hand, if you dislike some of the contents that “wildly” appear in your timeline, you can hide or report them to Facebook. Be proactive, that’s the key.