Meta may be returning a fabled classic to its social media that users have had to juggle for years now.
Tom Alison, Head of Facebook talked about some new things the platform has in store moving forward in a blog post. Alison speaks to how important the conversations we have with the people we’re close with are to the platform. Users have had to use Messenger and Facebook separately due to the lack of the former being integrated with the latter after some time. It was also mentioned that there are approximately 140 billion messages sent across all apps in a single day. Currently, there is an ongoing test of integrating with Messenger, bringing back those classic messaging features users have been missing on the native Facebook app.
Facebook does state its newfound outlook on continuing to bring messaging features back throughout the year. It would be great to have Messenger back inside the main Facebook app (considering it was odd needing to use another app just for messages). Recently, Messenger did get updated which brought emojis, chat themes, and more to its end-to-end encryption experience.
The Meta-owned platform is also looking at improving its AI capabilities as we move through 2023. Tom Alison explains that AI-powered discovery is a significant factor in providing meaningful connections to friends, families, and groups. Specifically, Facebook will be looking at Reels for this AI improvement. According to the blog post, more than 140 billion Reels are played across Facebook and Instagram. AI is reportedly responsible for many factors, not only being responsible for recommending short-form and long-form videos but also for photos, texts, and groups.
Facebook details this new AI-powered experience by using it to recommend public Group content based on your personal interests. The hope is to show content you would be the most interested in right on your Feed without you needing to search for anything manually.
As Meta’s scrolling video competitor to TikTok, the company has done work with Reels, bringing in improvements to better connect its existence across platforms. Last summer, Meta added a way for those on Instagram to crosspost Reels to Facebook. This works by linking both accounts and gives Creators a chance of seeing how they’re performing across multiple apps in one single Reels insights view.
Speaking of Creators, Tom Alison did mention that there will be some work done in that department, as well. Primarily, Creators on Facebook will soon have greater, simplified tools, better formats for creative expression, and tools to better their growth on the platform while also being able to easily manage their communities.
Source: Facebook
