Lately, Facebook has been focusing more on the type of content users will encounter in their feeds. The social media giant has added a test feature where users might see "Show More" and "Show Less" options, as mentioned in an Engadget article.
This will allow Facebook's AI to create an algorithm suited to the user's liking. Posts from Friends, Pages, and recommended posts can now be labeled by users, which serves as direct feedback for the AI system to learn from.
How Will It Work?
The options such as "Show More" will increase the ranking score for the posts which will be recorded by Facebook. You will then see posts that are tagged by Facebook as similar to the originally rated content.
It has the same algorithm shift for the "Show Less" option, which will do the opposite. The ranking for the post will decrease. The contents that are similar to the one you initially rated would also appear less, or not at all in your timeline.
Although, Facebook mentioned to TechCrunch that the selection will influence the kind of content you see for 60 days only. Facebook claims that these preferences only last for weeks, and that they want to keep up with its users when they want to change the kind of content they see again.
For now, the "Show More" and "Show Less" options will not be shown all the time since it's at their trial stage, but soon enough, Facebook will allow users to access the button at all times. You may see it in the upper right-hand corner where the options button is usually found. It appears as a three-dot menu.
Facebook mentioned that they will use direct feedback to refine their approach, seeing as the feature can help users discover content that is more valuable to them.
Read Also: Facebook Launches Home and Feeds Tabs
TikTok vs Facebook Reels
The trial test will also include Facebook reels, which is Facebook's counter to TikTok's famous short video platform. Facebook still can't compete with TikTok's algorithm since TikTok's main service is short-form video hosting, as compared to Facebook's side feature reels.
The length of short videos also differs on the two social media platforms. Facebook reels can last up to 60 seconds only while the video length for TikTok videos has been extended to ten minutes.
TikTok also offers a variety of effects for its users, as opposed to Facebook reels that only offer the ability for content creators to add sounds or music to the video.
Of course, Facebook still comes off strong when it comes to types of content like pages, status updates, and news posts, among others. It's also an advantage for Facebook that TikTok has nothing to compete with in terms of its main platform service.
This will allow Facebook to focus on optimizing its user content algorithm. It helps reduce complaints about seeing content that they don't want to see.
