Facebook is scheduled to add a dedicated news section to its Android and iOS apps, as per the screenshots surfaced on Twitter by Tom Critchlow (@tomcritchlow) on Friday. As seen in screenshots, Facebook is experimenting with a new layout on mobile that highlights multiple news sections, with topics such as World & U.S., Sports, and Food. However, the default section is still the classic news feed, which we usually view daily.
Responding to the development, Facebook confirmed that the product team is indeed testing the new and sectioned news feed in addition to the current format but declined to answer to a query as to when the news section will be launched officially.
Even though we have seen versions of topic-focused feeds in the past on iOS, the current format is entirely new to the Android platform, and users have never seen such a unique interface in the past.
Whoah. Massive change to the Facebook news feed. Anyone else seeing this? pic.twitter.com/EA3dFQRS6y
— Tom Critchlow (@tomcritchlow) April 15, 2016
According to internal sources within Facebook, the new interface is as a result of the growing demand among people to see more stories on Facebook around specific content from pages based on relevant topic areas.
The new sections appear at the bottom, which can be accessed by either tapping or swiping left or right. After tapping a section such as World & US, the news feed automatically updates to news articles that are related to the topic.
The main advantage of this unique news reader-style approach is that it enables users to read all the content they desire from within a single massive dashboard instead of navigating several pages of content. Moreover, it will force users to read content from within Facebook rather than other sources like Twitter or Google News.
We expect a global rollout of the Facebook’s refreshed news section by the end of Q3 2016.
Featured Image Credits: Mashable
