Last month, Facebook updated the news feed on their iOS and Android apps to give photos more prominence. The mobile news feed now boasts photos that are three times larger than they were before, as well as larger text accompanying the images. Now, Facebook is in the process of pushing this redesign to the web.
Rolling out to users gradually, the web interface update will enlarge photos and text, making it appear more like the mobile news feed we’ve been working with for the past three weeks.
According to TechCrunch, the new interface will increase the size of photos up to 2x. Text will be both enlarged and spaced out a bit more.
Here’s what it looks like when someone posts a series of photos before the redesign:
And (via TechCrunch), here’s what it will look like with the redesign. Note that one photo can be given wall-to-wall prominence, and you are able to view four photos at a time instead of just three:
Of course, it’s no secret how much of Facebook’s gameplan is wrapped up in photos. Recent acquisitions like Instagram and Lightbox show that Facebook knows its space in the social sphere is being the biggest photo sharing site there is. Giving more prominence to photos in the news feed simply shows how much Facebook wants to make the user experience revolve around images.
Inside Facebook confirms that the redesign will also affect pages, not just users. That means that businesses and the like will be able to take advantage of larger, more abundant photo space on your news feed. That kind of real estate might tempt a page owner to promote a post. The current limitations of photos posted by pages can be seen below:
Like I said before, the changes will be rolling out over the next few days, so don’t be alarmed if your news feed photos don’t appear larger and more plentiful right away.
