Facebook has finally rolled out its new user interface, although it has only been supplied to a select group of users, to obtain their feedback and use that feedback to make corrections and modifications. Assuming that there are no drastic changes resulting from this user feedback, there are some major differences which you’ll notice in the new Facebook user interface. These are described below, and when the interface is rolled out to the general public, you can start looking for these changes, and form your own opinions about whether you like them or not.
Dark mode
One of the most obvious enhancements which Facebook has made to its user interface is providing users with the option of having a dark mode on their desktop display. This is similar to the offering which Twitter has recently made to its subscribers, and is probably due to the fact that the darker screen was fairly well received by Twitter users.
There’s more to this than simple aesthetics though, because it’s well-known that darker screens are easier on your eyes, as opposed to the bright screens which dazzle your eyes, and eventually cause you to subconsciously screen out some of that light. It is also thought that dark screens cause much less disruption to your sleep routine, and allow you to get a better night’s sleep. Then too, there are some practical considerations such as saving on the battery life of your phone or laptop, because it costs much less energy to display a dark background than a bright one.
Resume functionality
A second major change on the Facebook user interface is that it will allow you to resume, or return to the location you were previously before scrolling. In effect, this allows you to pick up where you left off, so you don’t have to search for your previous location all over again, and waste a bunch of time trying to get there. Users will find this to be a very handy feature when you desire to react in some way to a post, or possibly to reply to a comment at a later time. This allows you to leave off what you’re doing, and come back to it later very easily without having lost your place.
Cleaner interface
This particular modification may be one which is a bit more subtle, and may not be noticed by the majority of Facebook users, other than those who are particularly sharp-eyed. Facebook has removed much of the clutter from its user display, with many of the icons having been removed from the left of the feed. These have now all been placed into folders which can be retrieved at any time by the user, but which are not automatically displayed on screens to take up space, and clutter up the display. This will be particularly appealing to those who favor greater organization and a less chaotic look on the interface.
Including Instagram photos on pages
It will now be possible to display any of your Instagram photos on your Facebook pages, especially from linked accounts. This means you will no longer have to go through any complicated process to bring in your favorite Instagram photos and save them to your Facebook account. You also won’t have to exit Facebook in order to retrieve these photos and bring them in.
This is apparently a feature which many users have requested of Facebook, and which the platform is now following through on in deference to those requests. This is not exactly new functionality, but it is one which offers a great deal of convenience to those users who typically share images across their platform accounts.
Brand-new video player
Those Facebook users who routinely enjoy playing videos on the platform will be delighted to find out that the new Facebook user interface now includes a much larger video player. This new feature will provide a much bigger and better display of all videos, and is much more akin to the YouTube video player than to the previous Facebook player. This is another feature which was apparently requested by a number of Facebook users, and which the platform has acknowledged to be a useful update to its capabilities.
This is also seen as a measure to stem the tide of Facebook users going off to YouTube to view videos, simply because they can be displayed and viewed much better on that platform. In terms of user retention, this may be more important to Facebook than it is to the users who actually play videos a great deal.
Face-lift for the marketplace
The last major change which users will notice on the Facebook user interface is that there is a major overhaul which has taken place on the Facebook marketplace. There is now a much cleaner layout, which is in line with Facebook’s efforts to provide a less cluttered display to all its users, so that information is simplified and made much clearer to those viewing.
There are also much bigger photos available on Facebook marketplace, which is intended to provide a better view of products being displayed, so that users can make a more informed decision on purchasing. These enhancements made to the marketplace are intended to make it a more valuable and useful feature that will also serve to retain users, as opposed to having them do their shopping elsewhere.
Facebook Messenger
Although this is not a change to the Facebook user interface, users may notice a significant enhancement to Facebook Messenger in that it will operate with much greater speed than before. A good deal of time and effort has gone into improving Messenger, because Facebook executives are convinced that the future of social media lies in privacy, and Messenger caters to this kind of exchange between individuals.
Facebook’s stated goal with Messenger is to make it the fastest messaging service on the Internet, as well as the most secure and private. At the time that Facebook announced these enhancements to Messenger, it was also announced that Messenger would be made available on both Mac and on Windows, so that a great many more users will have the opportunity to make use of it.
