Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Social Media
  3. News

Facebook toys with mixing Stories and News Feed into one swipeable carousel

By

Aimlessly scrolling through Facebook could soon become a game of tapping as Facebook tests a new format that mixes Stories with the traditional News Feed posts. After reverse engineering of the app showed off the potential feature, Facebook confirmed that it’s in the early stages of prototyping a News Feed that is more like Stories than the current scroll-through feed.

The prototype navigation, spotted by some finagling of the app code by reverse engineering guru Jane Machon Wong, is activated when a user taps on a post to view in full-screen mode. After tapping on a single post, the feed takes on a full-screen format where users navigate by swiping left, much like the current format for watching Stories. Alternately, if the user doesn’t swipe, the app automatically moves to the next post after six seconds, according to Wong.

Recommended Videos
Related

News Feed posts maintain a similar look with the tools to like, comment, and share intact, while the navigation is overhauled. Sponsored posts also appear inside the carousel, much like ads inside the usual news feed. Unlike the current option to save a status to both the News Feed and Stories, News Feed posts still look like the familiar post.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested during last spring’s quarterly earnings report that Stories are a major focus for the social media company, after the format saw jumps in growth. Since then, the network has added several different features to Stories, but mixing the News Feed posts with Stories could get the full screen, slideshow-like posts in front of even more viewers as well as help monetize the format.

An update making the swipe navigation mandatory may not go over well with users — after all, when Instagram accidentally released a test of similar swipe navigation, users were quick to complain. Leaving both options intact with the Stories-like navigation available by clicking on any News Feed post may be a better option for pleasing both the Stories fans and the users bent on keeping the traditional Feed intact.

While Facebook confirmed the new style of navigation is a prototype, the company says it isn’t testing the feature publicly yet and has more work to do if the feature will see a widespread rollout. Last week, Facebook also confirmed a test that would bring Messenger chats back into the native Facebook app.

As a prototype feature, the update may never see a wide rollout or may see major changes before coming to a public version. Early tests and prototypes, however, offer a glimpse at what updates the social media giant is considering next.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary K. Grigonis
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Twitter CEO claims platform had best day last week
A stylized composite of the Twitter logo.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino tweeted on Monday that despite the current fuss over Meta’s new and very similar Threads app, Twitter had its largest usage day last week.

Subtly including the name of Meta’s new app, which launched to great fanfare last Wednesday, Yaccarino did her best to sing Twitter’s praises, tweeting: “Don’t want to leave you hanging by a thread … but Twitter, you really outdid yourselves! Last week we had our largest usage day since February. There’s only ONE Twitter. You know it. I know it.”

Read more
Meta brings cartoon avatars to video calls on Instagram and Messenger
Meta's cartoon avatars for Instagram and Messenger.

The pandemic was supposed to have made us all comfortable with video calls, but many folks still don’t particularly enjoy the process.

Having to think about what to wear, or how our hair looks, or even fretting about puffy eyes following another bout of hay fever can sometimes be a bit much, even more so if it’s an early-morning call and your brain is still in bed.

Read more
Twitter is now giving money to some of its creators
A lot of white Twitter logos against a blue background.

Some Twitter users are now earning money via ads in the replies to their tweets.

New Twitter owner Elon Musk announced the revenue-sharing program in February, and on Thursday some of those involved have been sharing details of their first payments.

Read more