Short of redefining its business model, Facebook nonetheless is shifting the focus of the company's mega-popular mobile app by redesigning its interface and highlighting emerging services. The spotlight is now trained on Groups and Events features of the platform, likely indicating the News Feed is no longer a top priority for Mark Zuckerberg.
This is so in light of accusations that Facebook's News Feed has been utilized as a data-harvesting tool for the social media giant's advertising business - also the company's cash cow. The Verge reported that the adjustments announced by Zuckerberg as Facebook CEO seemed designed to deal with the nagging issues on "data privacy, security, moderation, and platform misuse."
"Facebook is in the earliest stages of completely redefining the type of company it wants to be and the products it wants to offer," the tech news site stated on its report.
The fresh path for Facebook appears to point on privacy as a core feature of the social networking site. Along this line, the company said the changes announced at the F8 2019 Developers Conference will be deployed as well to the platform's desktop version. It goes without saying that Facebook's other services will gradually if not immediately align with newly unfurled the business plan.
For a company that now counts 2.4 billion of active users as of April 2019, Facebook is looking for the most optimal ways to make those numbers go further up or at least keep the site users busy and even more interested.
To make it happen, the U.S.-based company is selling the site's Groups feature as the hottest thing on the platform. On the last check, the feature has attracted 400 million users and according to Facebook members tend to seek and stick on groups "they find meaningful."
"With this in mind, we're rolling out a fresh new design for Facebook that's simpler and puts your communities at the center. We're also introducing new tools that will help make it easier for you to discover and engage with groups of people who share your interests," the company said in a blog post that accompanied its event.
Facebook said Groups will get promoted heavily in the entire environment of the application, which indicates that users can expect conspicuous reminders that the feature exists. In the upgraded app, both for mobile and PC users, Groups will be seen on areas like Watch and Marketplace.
In the overhaul too, the company will emphasize the improved benefits that old and new features will deliver. Events, for instance, will facilitate a user's easier interaction with the community where he or she belongs. Meet New Friends, on the other hand, is Facebook's way of providing the venue for strangers to connect and perhaps develop a friendship.
As mentioned earlier, Facebook's refocused services will go live immediately for mobile users around the world and equally applies to the iOS and Android operating systems. Desktop users will have to wait a few months to experience the same.
