Facebook has maximized user engagement and boosted the time users spent in the application with its infamous News Feed algorithm, however, the algorithm has also been a… bit of a sore point, for many FB users.
The complex algorithm, which aims to show users more content that they’re likely to be interested in, uses a range of factors in its equations, including when something is posted, how often you interact with the creator, what type of post it is, and more, according to Social Media Today.
This generally means that users see posts that are seeing more engagement appear closer to the top of their feeds, however, this week reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong uncovered a new Facebook test which provided a simplified toggle that users could use to switch to different variations of their News feed.
Facebook is working on tabbed newsfeed for easier access to “Most Recent” and “Already Seen” feeds pic.twitter.com/8Z9KLG9nc8
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 18, 2020
Within these images, it is clear to see that the test provides three different variations of the News Feed within separate tabs which users would be able to access along the top of their feed list. The three versions are:
- Most Relevant – which is the current default algorithm-defined feed view
- Most Recent – which would enable users to see the latest posts from people and pages the user follows in reverse chronological order
- Already Seen – which would enable users to go back over the posts they’ve already viewed
Users can already access a reverse chronological News Feed by switching to most recent via the ‘More’ listing in the app or clicking on the three dots beside ‘News Feed’ in the right-hand column on desktop. These setting cannot be saved, so whenever a user does this switch, Facebook will default back to the algorithm feed the next time they log in.
Users can view their “Already Seen” list by clicking here.
Facebook has confirmed that the option is being tested internally, though it says it has no plans to roll it out to the public at this stage, according to Social Media Today.
What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo Credit: Unsplash