Meta Updates Facebook's Friends Tab, Aims To Revive 'Magic Of Friends' Through More Social Experiences

Meta is making some tweaks to its popular social networking platform Facebook so that "social media should feel social".

Beginning with the introduction of an updated Friends tab, Meta aims to make it simpler and more enjoyable for users to connect with friends and family on Facebook.

While Facebook has included the ability to connect with friends since its inception, Meta said in a blog post on its website that "the magic of friends has fallen away". This has been as a result of accommodating shifting demands and offer improved experiences in groups, video, marketplace and other areas. 

Throughout the year, Meta plans to introduce a number of "OG" Facebook experiences, starting with the updated Friends tab. 

Meta's goal is to make it simpler for users to locate the content of their friends on Facebook. As a result, it has introduced the new Friends tab in the US and Canada that "provides an experience made up entirely of content from your Facebook friends", Meta said.

The Friends tab, which used to display friend requests and People You May Know, will now display the stories, reels, posts, birthdays and friend requests. It will also not display recommended content. Available initially through the navigation bar on a user's home Feed, the Friends tab can always be accessed in the Bookmarks section of the app. 

To pin the Friends tab from there, user need to:

• Click their profile picture on the Home feed. 

• Click "Settings & Privacy", "Settings" and then "Tab bar". 

• Choose to customise the bar, then click "Friends" and pin the tab. 

Meta said that this is the first of several experiences coming this year that aim to bring back the joy of what Facebook was first created for. The company will be adding more fun, simple experiences to help users connect and share on Facebook.