Facebook testing multiple news feeds, with devoted timelines for particular topics

The traditional news feed will stay — but will be joined by topics like in a newspaper, such as ‘Travel’ or ‘Style’

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 30 December 2015 17:56 GMT
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A Facebook logo made up from pictures of users. Many teens are turning their back on the social network
A Facebook logo made up from pictures of users. Many teens are turning their back on the social network (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)

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Facebook is set to add new News Feeds — marking the first time that people won’t scroll through just one.

The site will keep its existing feed, which is made up of a combination of events, pictures and links that Facebook thinks users might be interested in. But it will also add new ones, which will automatically sort content that the site thinks might be interesting.

As well as the normal feed, Facebook will have secondary ones like “Travel”, “Style”, “Headlines” and “More”, according to reports from users who have been given the new feature.

The new feature will allow people to look for specific kinds of content, rather than picking through an amalgamation of everything that has been shared by their friends and pages they follow.

The feature is currently in testing. The site tends to add features for a limited number of users and then roll them out if they prove popular.

"People have told us they'd like new options to see and have conversations about more stories on Facebook around specific topics they're interested in," a spokesperson for Facebook told The Verge. "So we are testing feeds for people to view different stories from people and Pages based on topic areas."

Facebook is also reported to be testing out a new marketplace tool, which allows people to buy things when they see them on Facebook, without ever leaving the app.

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