Some users may see a new highlight on the Facebook app after opening which introduces new changes for Facebook pages inside the Facebook app. These changes were triggered on a server-side during the night. It is not clear yet if they are available for all users or just for a limited amount (like Facebook Page owners) and in which countries. For now, we can only say that there was a new release wave and it affected users in Germany.
What's in there?
Here is a quick list:
- "New home for Pages" pop up
- Blue dots on Home and More tabs (Shows that there are new changes in these sections)
- New design for Pages Settings tab
- New design for Pages Home tab
- New section "Pages News Feed" in the Pages settings tab
- A new 3 screen wizard which introduces "Pages News Feed"
- News sources selection
- A new "Pages News Feed" design
Yesterday Facebook also did an update for their Facebook Pages app where they enabled new features to a bigger pool of users. Like - common inbox for Facebook, Messenger and Instagram Direct and a new broadcast button for pages.
Keeping in mind that the beginning of October is the end of quarter number 3, we can say that the Pages team gradually pushes new features on which they were working on in quarter 2. Now it is the question if we will finally see a complete app redesign being ready before the end of the year.
This release is a bit different from minor A/B tests which Facebook pushes from time to time because of this time they are promoting their new features as much as possible. It is not the first time when they use blue dots on menu sections to highlight updates but this time they also made a pop-up screen and a 3 steps wizard.
Here is what they are about:
- Popup welcomes you to find new tools for Pages and explains that your readers will see your page the same as usual.
- The wizard starts from explaining the idea behind this change - they want to separate you feed browsing time between "personal" and "work".
- The second screen shows that you can find inspiration on other pages.
- And the third screen suggests you follow other pages to keep up with the industry updates.
Following work-related pages from your own page is quite obvious. What is more interesting here is the attempt to split the time spent on personal and work-related activities. As we all know, Facebook measures its app usage quite precisely and this data can be used for ad targeting later on.
Will it improve ads targeting? Let's see, but at least we know that Facebook pushes Pages forward with some new features and Pages are not going away.
